Hell Joseon: The Birth Crisis And Generational Discontent In South Korea

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1. I live in the US. I asked my girlfriend, who is from South Korea, if she ever plans on moving back to South Korea someday. Her response:

   “Oh no. They hate women there.”

   She is childless in her 40s and just got her US citizenship.

2. I posted this because South Korea’s .7 something birthrate basically qualifies as a purely man made destruction of a society, without anything half as dramatic as death camps or killing pits.

   If the South Korean birth rate keeps up this way, in like 50-100 years, it could collapse. I’m not sure what would take its place afterwards? Maybe they’d get robots for reproduction to take stress off of women. That would be easier for capitalism then reforming itself.

   And you know with the way the horrors of hyper competitive capitalism and intense misogyny intersect in South Korea, their insanely low birthrate is basically a way for other societies to look into the future and see what awaits them if things go unchanged.

3. Perhaps the most hyper capatalist nation on earth, previously ran by a violent dictator, now ran by nepotistic corporations. The future of South Korea is intrinsically linked to the USA.

   High suicide rates, high levels of gender inequality, a lack of social welfare and a society that values weslth above all else.

   The future of South Korea is questionable.

   Nice buildings though.

4. If you travel across Asia, you’ll quite often come across South Korean expats. They work pretty serious hours, and yet requesting a transfer out of South Korea is basically considered throwing the towel, tapping out of the hellish South Korean work life. It effectively kneecaps their career back at home, since a stint in Vietnam or whatever on their CV basically reads as “cracked and had to be sent out to pasture.” Again, these people aren’t doing sabbaticals at a spa or whatever, they’re still busting their ass by western standards.

5. The South Korean government will do whatever it takes to prevent this crisis except address the two root issues that are basically part of its society now

6. I teach ESL and have a lot of Korean students, mostly older business types.

   Basically, cost and time of raising a single child to adulthood is insane due to the cost of living, social pressures, and hypercapitalism.

   Your whole life is basically determined by their SAT test and what university you manage to get into, one of my clients is freaking out because his kid is just an above average student and they are terrified that their kid won’t be able to get a good job in Korea.

   The kid is in like, 9th grade, and his teachers are flagging him for failure for life because of *above average* grades, he’ll only be able to go to an *average* university.

   I had a male client in his 40s who was childfree because this system makes you stressed out as a child and just stresses you out even more as a parent, there’s too much social pressure to escape it.

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