Change in the Role of the Government

Question: Describe about the"Change in government role with changing environment". Answer: Nowadays, it has been observed that the issue of increasing ageing population is the major concern and is the subject of great attention throughout the world. The population ageing is the change in the distribution of the population of the country towards the older ages. The population ageing presents the great fiscal challenge faced by the government. The major impact produced by the ageing groups is on the economic status of the country (Feng, Kugler and Zak, 2002). At present, it is one of the serious problems faced by the governments related to its effects on the healthcare, pensions, care services, as well as, the future labor supply. Hence, to overcome these issues, governments should take some steps to prevent the worsening of the economy, as well as, to improve the quality and living standard of all the people. A few changes can be made by the governments in its main policy options like adjusting the pension systems to cope up with the future problems are delaying the retirem ent, to lower down the pension payments, as well as, to undertake the welfare reform (Grafenhofer, 2007). By increasing the age of the retirement or by delaying the retirement will lead the long period of working by the people. This in turn will help in avoiding the decrease in the labor participation and will also provide the decline in the number of the pensioners. Hence, increasing the economic status of the country. The provision of health care, which is made available through the government, is affected by a number of variables, like the production costs, as well as, the level of the funding, which is received through taxation (Stijepic and Wagner, n.d.). Therefore, with an increasing ageing population, there is the requirement of the government to lower the pension payments and to increase the contribution rate. In other words, lowering pension payments will help in leading the old people for continuous working. At present times, goods price, as well as, the medical treatments is very costly, and if government will lower the pension, it means that the older people may not be able to pay for all their leisure entertainment, as well as, for their healthcare treatments, or for buying daily items too. Hence, they will have to get back to their job for earning more money for better quality of life due to the fact that no support will be available from the governments. Moreover, lowering pensions with increasing the contribution rate will lead to the alleviation of the budged burden for the government. Hence, increasing contribution rates can be considered as the source of raising tax revenues overall, which in turn will increase the level of funding and thus, the better supply of the healthcare system (Long and Pfau, 2009). References Feng, Y., Kugler, J. and Zak, P. (2002). Population Growth, Urbanisation and the Role of Government in China: A Political Economic Model of Demographic Change.Urban Studies, 39(12), pp.2329-2343. Grafenhofer, D. (2007). Economic ageing and demographic change.Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 2007, pp.133-165. Long, G. and Pfau, W. (2009). Ageing, Poverty and the Role of a Social Pension in Vietnam.Development and Change, 40(2), pp.333-360. Stijepic, D. and Wagner, H. (n.d.). Population-Ageing, Structural Change and Productivity Growth.SSRN Electronic Journal.