Please read this essay at your natural speed.
Topic: More and more people in the developed world are living longer these days, and they are living well past the age of retirement. As a result, many of them do not have enough money in their old age to maintain a quality standard of life, often ending up poor and struggling to survive.
Suggest some steps governments can take to ensure a quality lifestyle for their elderly. What can people do to better prepare financially for old age?
Model essay:
Modern advances in medicine, education, and technology have led to a global increase in average life expectancy, especially in wealthy nations. Yet despite this positive development, many people reach old age financially unprepared and struggle to survive. In my opinion, governments should take some responsibility for their elderly and secure for them a better life by offering affordable access to medicine and housing. In addition, governments can educate their populations on how to prepare for old age. Young people, for their part, should adopt a more forward-thinking approach to aging.
Firstly, a government is accountable to its citizens, meaning it has a duty to ensure their well-being. This includes guaranteeing their dignity, something hardly achievable when a person must choose between medicine and food. To counter this dilemma, a government should allocate some of its annual budget toward subsidizing living costs for those who cannot afford it. One way to do this is to establish more senior residences and hire in-house medical professionals to care for their inhabitants. This will allow the tenants not only to receive the attention they need, but also to have the ability to socialize with others and live a normal life.
Another step a government can take, which would also reduce long-term costs and minimize the number of people requiring assistance, is to introduce courses into the public school curriculum that will address these issues. If young people learn early on how to manage their money and use technology to increase their livelihood, then retirement ought to be less of a struggle. These young people, in turn, need to be more receptive of this type of education and be accountable for their own lives. They need to learn to save, invest, and grow their wealth for a rainy day. More importantly, though, young people must realize that life is a marathon, not a sprint, and that they need to think about the future as much as the present.
To sum up, governments, especially those of rich nations, have to make sure that all of their citizens can live a worthy life. However, people must realize that they are ultimately responsible for their own situations and should therefore learn to prepare for their future.
