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In your view, what are the likely political and socio-economic impacts of the demographic changes we see in the world today?

Some countries are experiencing a population boom where the population is almost doubling. In India, arranged marriages are commonly practised. Girls in their teens are match-make with older men who are in their twenties or thirties. Moreover, cultural norms like the preference over males are deeply embedded in the vast majority in places like India and Africa. Sons are favoured because they provide the manual labour that is needed to plough the farmland. Moreover, they bear the burden to carry on the family name. Thus, many married women are being burned or killed by their in-laws or husbands when they failed to produce a son.

It is sad to see such tragedies occurring due to the preference for boys. Additionally, because of such early marriages, most young girls are forced to drop out of schools. This led to a decrease in literacy rate and lowering of women status because their entire life revolves around managing the household and reproducing children. Furthermore, countries with a population boom are experiencing a lower living standard due to high cost of living incurred by the large family. This had led many to contract the deadly HIV aids virus. In places like Kenya, young women are forced to sell their bodies to make ends meet. Hence, this increases their susceptibility to the virus.

In the other extreme, countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are going through an aging population. Women undergo education and are able to pursue a career. This has helped to increase their social status. However, it is also due to such a phenomenon that aging population has resulted. More working people are placing more emphasis on their careers instead of starting a family. In countries like Japan, some believed that women with babies are considered a burden and that marriage is a dependency. Thus, to some women, they rather forsake marriage to secure their position in the competing society. Therefore, the population size starts to shrink.

With the improvement in the field of science, disabilities of elderly are reduced and they are able to have a longer life expectancy. The trend of aging will eventually lead to a decrease in the number of young people entering the workforce and to support the elderly. With a lower population size, the number of consumers will inevitably be reduced. An aging society will also lead to an increase in pension spending but it can be mitigated by rising the retirement age. Older folks also have more political influence as the older people will hold more votes than the young since the young can be forbidden to vote under a certain age limit. On the contrary, the advantage of a shrinking population is that the money spent on developing more childcare facilities can be channelled to the creation of more jobs and for other economics purposes.

With reference to the video “world in the balance”

posted by Si Hui @ 8:40 PM