Should We Provide Workplaces for the Elderly?

I often saw the scenes about happy and enjoyable lives after retirement of old people with silver hair in movies and dramas. And I'm sure that many people watch those movies and dramas at home or at the theater. While watching them, we dream of the fantastic life we will enjoy after the retirement. However, unfortunately, the reality is different from our imagination. But, why? Why can't we achieve our dream? Why should some of us spend the rest of their lives lonenly in a small, stale and cold house? That's mainly because most people have to use a huge portion of their savings on their children's college tuition and wedding expenses. What can we do if we do not have enough money? Of course, we should earn more money! I think that's why we should give jobs to old people.

There are even more advantages of giving jobs for the elderly. As I mentioned, old people nowadays are very lonely. The suicide of old people is becoming a serious social problem. I believe they will be less lonely if they have their workplaces. They will get friends, who make small talk with the lonely elderly, and use their talents for good causes. Also, they can contribute to the development of Korea. According to UN,  average Korean man can live until the age of 77, and Korean woman can live until the age of 84. While the average lifespan is increasing, the number of young people and children is decreasing. Since young people who can work for the development of the country are reducing, it is essential to give workplaces for the elderly.

Of course, some people are insisting that we should not give workplaces to old people. The main reason why is the unemployment problem of young people. According to the recent research, 7.6% of the Korean youth are unemployed nowadays. Meanwhile, some old people, who are serving as professors, doctors, or politicians, earn a lot of money every year and their children, who are luckier than the majority of people, inherit the fortune. Moreover, the couple with a young child needs to spend a lot of money on their child's education. Nowadays, many children attend kindergarten or academy and some of them even have private tutors. Young child's kindergarten fee which amounts to 6,000,000 won a year burdens ordinary people. The people who oppose to providing the elderly workplaces are arguing that we can save the money if  the old people stay home and take care of their grandchildren.

Speaking of my opinion, I think that it is the old person's freedom to decide whether or not he(or she) get a job. I mean, if an old person think that he need the second workplace for his second life, the nation should support him to find such a good job. But if he (or she) decide to stay home and take care of his grandchildren, we should allow him to do it. Everybody, including the elderly, have their own thoughts about the point. I think the only role of young people is helping the elderly to do what they want.

I believe this issue is very arguable. But, I think, before we argue about this problem, we should think what is the best way for old people first. There are so many dark sides in our society and one of them is increasing of old people who live alone without any help from others. It is said that a good society is where government provide good social welfare program. So why don't we make society where old people are happy?

Moral Dilemmas

Throughout our lives, we need to make important decisions. Often, our desicions determine our lives, our wealth and even our credit. Everytime we are faced with those important problems, we tend to ponder about them seriously. But why do we ponder about the problems? Why do we spend so much time thinking about the problems? Well, there are many reasons for the phenomenon but it's mostly because of 'moral dilemmas'.

I recently read a book called  'Justice' by Micheal Sendal, the professor of Harvard University who became a professor at a very young age. In his book, he explained about moral dilemmas. Today I'm going to introduce two of them to you.

Four sailors were lost in the middle of the sea. One of them was a 19-year-old boy and other sailors were all adults. Nobody came to rescue them for several days. They did not have enough food and could not stand anymore. Eventually, even if one of the sailors disapproved with the point, the captain of the ship decided to kill the boy, who was very sick at that time, and eat his flesh. After a few days, the three sailors were rescued and the people who successfully saved the sailors found a corpse of a boy which was half-eaten.

A few decades ago, hurricane swept Florida, a city in the United States, and many people lost their houses, money and even their families because of the brutal hurricane. To make the matters worse, the stores and factories in the town increased the price of products which were essential to the survivors. The survivors became very angry but they had no other choice. They needed to buy food and tools. As the result, the merchants earned a lot of money and survivors became poorer.

Are the behaviours of the merchants and sailors justifiable?This may be an extremely difficult question for most people since they are pretty complicated. Let me explain about the first moral dilemma. Think about it, the sailors who survived insisted that all the four sailors might have died in the middle of the sea if they had not eaten anything. But they had sibling, parents and children who fed on the fishes they brought home. They might think, 'my children and parents will all die soon if I do not return home with fishes. So I have to be alive.' For the reason, the sailors' behaviour is justifiable on one hand. But on the other hand, it is not. The four sailors are 'fellows' who worked together, had a meal together and spent difficult time together. They should not eat the flesh of their fellow by all means. They rather needed to take care of the young sailor and wait patiently for a helping hand together.

As we can know through the two examples above, moral dilemmas are pretty difficult to solve. But all of us have to be faced with many moral dilemmas throughout our lives. Therefore, it is important to deal with the problems wisely and make the best decisions for the situations.