【答案解析】 Recently, some experts suggest that we raise the mandatory retirement age because of the huge deficit in the pension fund in China. Meanwhile, a major portal website in China asked the public "do you think the age of retirement should be raised?" The results were frankly, very one-sided. Almost 95 percent of the participants responded negatively to the idea. The main reason given was that it affects the employment and life of the younger generation. Only 2 percent said yes to the proposal. Even the BBC news mentioned that retirement results in a "drastic decline in health" in the medium and long term. I think that reason cannot account for the raise of retirement age. And in my view, the government should not raise the mandatory retirement age.
I will state my opinion from three points. Firstly, it can increase the employment pressure. As we all know, the unemployment is the most serious problem that young people face. According to the data, college students nationwide will reach 7 million this year, increasing by one hundred and 90 thousand than that last year, but the actual provision of new job and the job vacancy caused by retirement is only 12 million each year. So there is a huge gap between supply and demand. Clearly, from these data, we know China is currently facing the severe unemployment problem. If we raise the retirement age, it will undoubtedly make the employment situation worse. Second, raise retirement age will lower the productivity. We know that in information age, the technology updates constantly, people should keep the pace of technology. However, the elder"s ability of learning is decreasing with the age, so the young labor productivity is higher than the elder on average. If retirement age is raised, the enterprise will pay more for the elders even though they cannot create equally value for the enterprise with the young people, which will indirectly increase the company"s burden. Lastly, not all the people are willing to postpone retirement, especially those people who do physical works. Long-term labor makes them unhealthful. They should have had a happy life in their late life. However, if we raise the retirement age, they have to work for even longer than before, this will make their health worse.
In a conclusion, I personally do not advocate the raise of retirement age. The higher the retirement age is, the fewer jobs there are for the young. However, whether an increase in the retirement age is good or bad should be considered comprehensively from the population, social security, female worker"s own development problems, especially the employment problem. So the government should listen to the views of the community before making policies.