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  3. Read carefully the following excerpt on ageing population argument in the USA

Read carefully the following excerpt on ageing population argument in the USA

游客2024-09-07  28
问题    Read carefully the following excerpt on ageing population argument in the USA, and then write your response in NO LESS THAN 200 words, in which you should:
   - summarize the main message of the excerpt, and then
   - comment on whether the aging phenomenon is beneficial or not.
   You should support yourself with information from the excerpt
   Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
                  Population Aging in China: A Mixed Blessing
   China is rapidly getting older. Three decades ago, only 5 percent of the population was over 65: today, 123 million people, or 9 percent of the population, are over this age. A report released by a government think tank forecasts that China will become the world’s most aged society in 2030. Further, by 2050 China’s older population will likely swell to 330 million, or a quarter of its total population.
   While China is not swimming against the population aging tide, the speed and scope of the change has caught Beijing off guard. Pensions, health care, and social security systems are still underdeveloped. China’s pension fund, put in place in 1997, is unable to keep up with aging population, and the pension reserve level remains extremely low.
   This booming senior population, together with the changing household structure and growing wealth, has also created a new growth market: institution-based elderly care. Currently, less than 2 percent of the senior population uses institution-based care. Yet according to a 2011 survey, 11.3 percent of the older people living in urban areas are willing to receive care in institutions (compared to 12.5 percent in the rural areas). It is estimated that the number of seniors who are able to afford senior housing will reach 22 million by 2020. This would generate huge opportunities for investors.
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答案                       Population ageing: a mixed blessing?
   After the baby boom in the 20th century, the ageing population is on the rise and will continue to grow in the future. While this reflects the general well-being of human society to some extent, I would argue that the disadvantages of this trend are more significant than the benefits.
   On the one hand, an ageing society can be a positive development because it has been found to create a new market for us, especially during a time when most countries are suffering from the slow development. Investors are aware of the old care market since more pensioners, from both urban and rural areas, are willing to join in the day care or even nursing homes to spend rest of their lives. This really encourages the development of many other by-products related, thus likely to boom the whole economic development.
   However, an increasing number of older people can have adverse impacts on society. The most serious problem is that it can impose mounting pressure on taxpayers because the pension for retired citizens comes from taxation. With more people retiring, governments would have to levy more tax from working adults to support the pension system. In addition, those adults may have to take the responsibilities of attending their elderly relatives when public resources are not readily available. What is worse is that a smaller proportion of younger people means a smaller working population, which may even lead to economic recession due to the decline of overall products and services which are supplied by these working people.
   In conclusion, although the demographic trend may indicate the general well-being of the whole population, it seems to me that the potential problems lurking underneath do outweigh the benefits.
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