Ageing Population

There are various problems with an ageing population, various things that are caused by it:

• Resource crowding out
• Financial crowding out
• Increase the national debt and annual interest payments
• A large increase in tax may be inevitable

There are things that can be done though.

People could be made to work longer, for example increasing the retirement age. This will help to combat the crowding out of resources, as more things will be being produced to cope with the demands of a high population. This refers to Ester Bultrup's theory which states that it will be human nature to adapt to change in our society.

If the government increase income tax, they will increase revenue to pay for the higher pension bill. However, higher income tax may lead to lower work incentives. It may discourage people from living in a certain country. Because income tax is low in the UK, a higher rate may not reduce incentives that much; however, there is a high opportunity cost of taxing for pensions. Pension spending does not increase productivity in the economy, and could add to the debt problem in the UK.

Pension costs could be decreased, maybe by only giving out pensions to those who had low incomes or do not have that much money. This would decrease pension costs as a result.

Reduce child deaths and end overpopulation

An article by Bill Gates in The Times

The article argues that money devoted to 'development' is anything but a waste. The impact of development spending has been incredible.

Millions of poor children in LEDC's are dying of diseases that are so easy to prevent, one example of this is a rotavirus which kills half a million kids each year. This knowledge is what triggered Bill and Melinda gates to start their foundation, the 'Bill & Melinda Gates foundation'. They believed that a child is just as precious and important to a family in Kenya or India as to a well-off family in London, for example.

Overpopulation is one of the main problems, the more people there are living in a place, the harder it is to provide enough food, educate children and sustain the environment, especially where resources are scarce. The population growth rate is simply unsustainable. Suprisingly, preventing child deaths has a reverse affect on population growth, it slows it down, as opposed to speeding it up (which you would expect to happen). Mothers in LEDC's only really want a maximum of two or three children, in most cases. The problem is is that they expect their children to not survive, so they have more to counter this problem. If she is certain about the health of her children, she can then invest money into their needs, such as health, education and livelihood.

Vaccinations are also a key tool in helping to improve the quality of life for people in some of the poorest regions of the world. Often diseases present in India such as measles and tenatus are easily avoidable with effect, inexpensive vaccines. An investment by the UK and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in an organisation called Gavi (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) helped to reduce child deaths from measles by 75% between 2000 and 2008. To put it simply, vaccines saves hundreds upon thousands of lives each year. It was the use of vaccines that also helped to eradicate polio, effectively wiping a disease off the planet.

In hindsight, I believe that this is one of the best investments we can make, and agree with the claim made by Bill Gates at the end of the article - 'The UK's spending on development for the world's poorest people is the best investment that you can make for improving lives. Bar none'. At the end of the day we only live once, and improving the quality of life for people all over the planet so they can enjoy life to the full, is in my opinion one of the most important things in the world, if not the most important thing in the world.

Ben Hustwayte 12G2