In Hong Kong, there has been a heated debate on the problems of aging population and shrinking birthrate, which will lead to the decrease of working labour in society. For the sake of the future of Hong Kong, we must find a way out. There are many factors that inflict the recent dilemma. Let us explore the issue together.
With the rapid development of medical advancement, people in Hong Kong can enjoy more advanced and cheaper medicine and therapy. Elderly diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and so on could be spotted earlier and no longer fatal. As a result, people are having longer lifetime than before.
Meanwhile, the high living standard of the Hongkongers is also beneficial to human health. People do not need to be worried about the food supply and the hygiene as the government has already done well in these aspects. Furthermore, we can enjoy different types of food like imported food and organic food. The more nutrients we take in, the healthier we are and this makes us live longer.
On the other hand, the high inflation rate leads to the shrinking birthrate. The cost of bringing up a child is unreasonably huge. The expenditures on education, medical, houses, etc. add burden to parents. Many couples give up giving birth because the lump-sum payment is totally unaffordable to them. Besides that, more women are working in society. They may view their children as a hindrance to their professional success as they have to spend much time on their children. As a result, they are less willing to have the offspring.
There is nothing wrong that some people are not going to give birth. However, when considering the competitiveness of Hong Kong and the future burden of the young generations, we must do something.
First of all, the government should help people who are having children by setting up more child-care centres and providing financial support to them. By establishing more child-care centres, the time cost of taking care of children can be reduced. Providing a financial aid can help citizens to fight with the rocketing inflation rate and it can reduce their economic pressure. For example, families which have more than one child can receive support by government. These policies can encourage people to have children, lessening the aging problem.
Moreover, the government could invite overseas and mainland talents by giving them good welfare like HK residents. This can raise our labour force and the talents are more willing to give births as they may have less financial burden. One obvious example is the success of our neighbor country, Singapore. HK government should definitely learn from its policies.
Aging population and shrinking birthrate will lead to a dismal result. We have no excuse not to cope with the problems as these are our duties, just like what the older generation working hard for us in the older days. It is high time the government fought against it!