Styles of Writing – Specific:
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SITUATION – PROBLEM – SOLUTION:
A common structure in academic writing is that of problem-to-solution. The passage below consists of three paragraphs, each of which can be clearly identified as consisting of:
- Situation Ageing population
- Problem Economic destabilisation
- Solution Urgent action by governments of the G8 countries
The rapid ageing of the developed world is pushing the global economy towards the edge of a demographic abyss, according to a report by the Commission of Global Ageing. The study details the implications of falling birth rates and rising life expectancies. Since 1950, advances in medicine and public health have produced a nearly three-fold rise in the elderly populations of OECD countries, but fertility rates have plunged. In the next ten years, the population of Japan will start to shrink, followed within the next few decades by the European Union and even China. The United States and Canada will continue to grow, but far more slowly. Global ageing has been slow to develop in the last two decades, but a sudden rise is predicted from 2010.
The process appears to be moving much faster than legislation and government policy.
The decline in workforces will put downward pressure on productivity and growth. There will be fewer young people to pay tax or contribute to pension and health insurance systems, but more elderly people will be drawing on funds and requiring medical care. Meanwhile, ageing countries face a decrease in capital as investors look for higher growth rates overseas and put pressure on governments for increased immigration.
Many of these symptoms are already apparent in Japan, which has suffered 10 years of economic stagnation.
To minimise the pain, the Commission said it was important to begin preparing for the problem immediately by putting the issue permanently on the agenda of the G8 group of industrial states. It said that world leaders should strengthen pension and health systems, increase immigration, revise labour laws and change financial service structures and family policy. It is suggested that governments should encourage non-native residents to become citizens or to be given permanent residency. To raise the fertility rate, the commission said that governments should offer greater tax incentives for having children and improve childcare services. The report concluded that urgent action was needed to prevent "ageing recessions" and financial turmoil.
Source: adapted from a report by Jonathon Watts in The Guardian, 30 August 2001.
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