Spending money on the elderly is a waste of money

"Spending money on the elderly is a waste of money; it is better off spent on the young who can still contribute to society" Explain whether you agree or disagree.

This idea, in front of me, can be looked at from many different perspectives. In my opinion, I do not agree with the idea that spending money is a waste of money and time. It is of course a non reciprocal thing, which will not benefit us at this present time.

But we must first look at the fact that the elderly were once the young and were contributing to our society. Without their input our developed society, which we thrive in, may not have been achieved and that could have meant loss of the luxuries that we take for granted. The spending, on the elderly, could therefore be seen as the least we could do for all the benefits they worked for to give to us.

We must also recognise that with our improved and flourishing economy, the typical style of the extended family, which would look after the elderly, has disappeared.

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This is due to factors like marriage and unemployment which makes family members move all around the country. Therefore, we should spent money on the elderly because they are unable to deal with the simple tasks which we are able to do so easily. They need our support and attention and spending money on service like Meals- on -Wheels can benefit lives greatly.

By also spending money on the elderly we can try and let them have some of the quality and sanctity of life which they once had.

If we don't spend money to help the elderly, it could have nasty repercussions when looking at it from an economic point of view. For example, our population is an ageing one and if less money is spend on the elderly we are likely to have a higher death rate and an influx of the elderly into health care. This will therefore mean that there will be a strain on the NHS to deal with this. And it will therefore mean that the government may have to spend more on the elderly indirectly, so by spending a little now in different areas it will benefit our society in the long run.

Finally, the most obvious reason for spending money on the elderly is that we are going to become elderly. We would therefore think that when we have done our part for society, we are able to rely on others to help us when we need it. It would therefore set a bad example for future generations to act upon. And maybe one day, we may find ourselves in need of attention and support and I, fore one, would think it great.

However, there is the other side of the coin. If we were to spend money on the young, it would probably have benefits for our society in the future. For example, if we were to spend money on education we could try and make sure that the young would become a highly skilled workforce, able to compete in the global economy. The elderly, as we already realise, can not contribute to society and we could say that further spending is a waste of money, when there are so many more benefits when spending it on the young. We could therefore say that the time has passed for the elderly.

Also we should spend money on the young because many don't get a chance in their life to succeed. We could place money into lives and areas to help create chances in their future and allow our young to achieve. For example studies in England have seen that the quality of life improves greatly for the young when money is placed into areas of interest.

Finally, spending money on the young could also help to prevent crime. Many young people who don't have much to live for turn to crime for answers. If the government could provide money for sports centres or improving local sports areas then many children will have something to enjoy in their lives. This would also stop crime, as I said before, because the have a hobby to channel their energy into.

In conclusion, we should not decide to spend money on one and not the other. In my opinion, the young and the elderly require money spent on them to support them or to improve their future. Of course there are people who see the elderly as unable to repay this, whilst the young will be able to with their job choices. However, in our society no one should be excluded from benefits whether it is a contributor to our society or not.