Essay topic financially responsible for your parents

Reflection Essay

Worth up to 10 points:

1 point for an excellent title

1 point for including complete reference for any works you choose to cite (none required)

3 points for use of language (grammar, punctuation, logic, and flow of the essay)

5 points for your ideas

We have been reading about variations in employment, retirement, social security, and pension systems in different countries, especially in South Korea. For this essay, assume that you live in a country where adult children have been and are responsible for their parents in the parents’ old age. Therefore, you (and your siblings if you have them) are responsible for the financial security of your parents in their old age. (In other words, assume there is no social security or pension system, or a very meager one because it is just starting out—such as the case in South Korea.) Assume that basic health care needs are provided for by the government in clinic and hospital settings, but not in nursing home settings. Suppose also, that your generation is the last to be expected to financially support parents in their old age, and that once you reach old age, your children will NOT be responsible for your financial security, because the country would have developed social security and a pension system (as is the case in S. Korea), and you will get benefits based on your employment record. Write a 2‐3 page essay (absolutely no more than 3 pages double spaced, 12 font) explaining how your own life would be affected by the expectation that you help provide financial security for your parents in their old age, and that your children will not be responsible for you. You might discuss how that might affect your choice of a career, a life partner, having your own children, your relationship with siblings, how you spend your free time, whether it would make sense to live with your parents in their old age, your relationship with your parents and in‐laws etc. You might choose to discuss how the fact that more people are living longer may affect you. Make sure you explain what your family situation is, so that the reader understands what is at stake. You do not have to address all these issues, in fact it would be more interesting to read if you choose one or two points to focus on in‐depth and then sprinkle in other comments as you see fit.