Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies in Korea

Abstract

After entering the aged society, Korea is currently moving toward the post-aged society. The number and population ratio of the elderly are increasing while the characteristics of each individual are getting diversified. This not only means the changed characteristics of the existing elderly, but also shows the complicating overall characteristics as the new elderly with different characteristics join the existing group. Paying attention to this part, this study aimed to seek for the measures for coping with the post-aged society. The senescence is in an inseparable relation with aging, and getting old means facing such regressive and negative changes different from the past in the biological, psychological, and social aspect. However, the degree of change is different depending on each individual, and the aging itself is multilayered and also has mutual influences between elements, which must be complicating. The diversity has the multidimensional characteristics, so it is difficult to give it a consistent definition. This study defined the diversity by considering the perspective of ‘difference’ itself. Even though the current elderly generation belongs to the same age group of ‘the elderly’, the baby boom generation with different characteristics from the existing elderly is continuously flown into it, and the diversity within the elderly group gets intensified, which would be even stronger as time passes. In the level of socio-policy response related to the diversity of the elderly, the best method is the customized-response based on the diversity of biological, psychological, and social aging, which is closely related to the improvement of life quality in the state of considering the change, difference, and expansion of the characteristics of the elderly in many areas.