Suicide crisis in South Korea: Nearly 10 aged 65+ take own lives each day

29 comments

1. someone check on that lady

2. I think creating widespread recreational and activity areas for the elderly and encouraging them to engage in leisure activities is a great idea. In China, whether in rural areas or cities, you can always see elderly women gathering to dance in public squares and elderly men playing cards together.

3. I wonder if government is not secretly celebrating this kinds phenomena given that it’s a relief from social support system?

4. Shouldn’t they be invited to an island to play games?

5. After the Korean War, Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. But with rapid economic development came with rapid cultural shifts and it caused many social issues. This is one of them.

   Traditionally, Korean society functioned in a way where parents invested way too heavily in their children, especially in education (which I personally think is one of the key reasons behind Korea’s low birth rate). In return, children were expected to succeed, earn money, and eventually take care of their aging parents.

   But due to educational inflation – nearly 90% of students now go to college, the return on investment in education has significantly decreased. Meanwhile, as the era of high growth has ended, prices keep rising while wages remain same, making it incredibly difficult for the younger generation to financially support their parents.

   As a result, many elderly people are struggling financially cuz they spent too much into their children. Mostly for their education.

6. The situation is complex. As stated, not only depression but debilitating age related illness that which can destroy quality of life.
   Park dancing and playing cards doesn’t help much with that. Korea has zero assisted death/right to die with dignity, so people have to resort to taking their own lives alone.

7. Relatable

8. the oligarch’s wet dream, coming to a crumbling late capitalist society near you

9. My mom is 79 and every chance she gets, she tells me she wants to be dead.

   EDIT: I’m in the US

10. they get abandoned by their own families 

11. Hell thats my retirement plan in Australia to be honest

12. Godspeed o7. Lots of these people know their quality of and comfort in life peaked long ago and would rather die than be wageslaves or senile for the next 15 years. If you make it 65 and choose to dip chances are you know the score and have experienced enough to make an informed decision. Is it tragic? Most definitely, but as a society this issue will only continue to worsen so long as we treat people as a commodity

13. For comparison, based on 2021 data roughly 10 South Koreans die from diabetes a day, and 35 a day from Alzheimer’s and dementia. It’s certainly a preventable cause of death that they can focus on but it’s pretty small potatoes

14. Please my south korea friends. Don’t do it. I will be your friend

15. That’s a good thing. This way the younger generation won’t have to worry/spend so much on the growing population of elderly. 

    Now they have money and time over to have children saving south korea from the disaster originally predicted 

16. Well yeah when you don’t value any aspect of your people’s lives eventually when the machine spits you out as an elderly the self deletion rate going to be high. South Korea has a ton of cultural work to do for social change for its people.

17. Squid games

18. Let’s see what happens here when the consequences of our declining birth rate catch up to us.

19. to no one’s surprise, south korea is a two party democracy, just like the USA

    and just like the USA it is thus haunted by corruption, power abuse and oligarchy

    if only people realised a coalition democracy system significantly improves the wellbeing of its own people and thus the future of the country as a whole, these countries might be better off

20. Did not expect Malay mail to be here

21. I’m done in at 50, give me a couple or three years to enjoy my house being paid off and no work and I’ll be ready to go at 70.

22. https://youtu.be/Ufmu1WD2TSk?feature=shared

    Kurzgesagt – SOUTH KOREA IS OVER

23. So…heres the thing. Healthcare in Korea is not free. Its great and its discounted for most common things things, but not free. Its absolutely fantastic for minor illnesses and such but if you get a big, serious illness you are kinda fucked unless you have the financial ability to pay for treatment. If not…your kids are going to be paying for it, and nobody wants that. The longer you live, the higher your bills and the more they have to pay.

    So lets say you are old and have a chronic illness thats just getting worse and more expensive to treat every year. Do you let your kids take your burden, and fuck them over…or do you do what YOU think is the right thing to do and take your own life, saving them from being fucked over for years by the awful money grabbing hospitals?

24. How do they actually do it at their age?

25. Voluntary euthanasia should be an available option for those who face significant deterioration of health or lifestyle.

26. Its almost as if wages should go up world wide wow. Good that thats never going to happen because billionaires need yachts and we all need more plastic shit buried into the earth

27. The thought of not eating dog anymore is too much

28. Assisted suicide needs to be implemented worldwide. It’s unfair that we let people waste away like this without any other options
    It’s only going to get worse

29. While on the surface it sounds sad, I believe it’s a choice like any other. There’s a stigma around it but ultimately we should have agency over our ability to say we’ve had enough and cash out.

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