How Koreans Feel About Birth Rate Crisis | Street Interview

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this video do not represent that of Asian Boss or the general Korean public.

00:00 Do you want to have children?
02:28 What do you think of the low birth rate in Korea?
07:59 Why do Koreans not want to have children?
12:17 How much does it cost to raise a child in Korea?
17:40 How can the low birth problem be solved?

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[AsianBoss]

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[biancagreyholubova]

4:28 she said it all. If the government wants them to have kids, they have to change the environment and policies and norms for them to WANT to have kids.

[jkim]

Raised by Korean parents, I was taught that I was a failure as a human because I was not the best at anything so I have no desire to bring a person into the cruel world that I was brought up in.

[kageisuke]

Why would Young Koreans, especially women, want to have kids? They grew up in that hyper competitive environment and know how stressful it is to be doing school work 12 hours a day, 18 hours a day, and only getting 5 hours of sleep. And if you're the mother, you can kiss your career goodbye. You get discriminated against openly for being a mother with no promotions, barely any raises, and people pressuring you to quit to be a stay at Home mother. If you work outside the home, you still have a full time job with ALL the domestic duties unless you luck out with a helpful father. And the father never sees their family, having to work crazy hours to make up for the lack of a second income, and that's only if the overtime is even PAID in the first place. It often times isn't. And the after work forced socialization when all you want to do is go home and see your wife and kid is the key to promotions. You have to be a "team player". Korea is suffering from hyper capitalism in a country that expanded super fast from abject poverty after the Korean War to one of relative prosperity in 50 years. Society hasn't kept up, and it's punishing the young and the weak.

[Ninjacatlover]

Mothers don‘t get the respect they deserve. Every country whines how they need more children but in reality children and mothers are not treated well. Children should only be seen and never heard. If they act out it‘s the mothers fault and besides being a mother is not even seen as a job. You don‘t get enough financial help so why would young people want children?

[Cloudxv]

IMO, this is a scene not only in Korea but everywhere in the world. Cost of living is increasing non stop, richer gets richer and middle income earners are squeeze till it's difficult to breath. So it's no surprise that many younger generations opt to take care of their own first instead of thinking to start a family.

[LadyMarigoldWithers]

Being a kid there sounds awful, like you’re just some robot tasked with learning everything from dawn til dusk then joining a never-ending fight for work and status with a terrible work/life balance as soon you’re an adult. Why would anyone want to do that?

[womeninadjusting]

“Since we don’t know what the future holds, I think I should become a person who can go anywhere, anytime”

[imjh]

My parents told me ‘you can enjoy your life when you became an adult, so stop playing and study.’
That’s why I’m enjoying my life instead of having a child or getting married.😂😂

[MrsStrawhatberry]

If I was a man, I'd also like to have children but since I am not and I am the one who has to give birth, be pregnant, risk my health, probably my career, I don't.
It's actually not that complicated.

Not even talking about money, housework and child care here.

[Mokawoo]

What the guy said, seeing our parents work to the bone to not enjoy much in life makes people not want to give life just to endure what we had already endured which was seeing our parents suffer and suffering with them .

[angelsis]

Lolll of course the men in their society want kids. Its so easy to "love" your kids and get married when your wife does all the work. I dont blame the women for not wanting kids if all the burden is put on them.

[notnanni]

if i could be a father, heck, i'd want five kids! but as a mother, being expected to give up everything i've worked for and become a 주부 housewife or worse, having to care for the kids as a default parent AND working 딩크, i could never imagine that. The gender divide in korea is insane and it's growing worse with men not wanting to admit that the current system is disadvantageous towards women at best and oppressive at worst. Women are the future, they control the birthrate when human rights are ensured. It'd do a lot of societies good to treat them better, and it's have good effects for everyone, regardless of gender.

[MrBurns]

This all stems from rising income inequality. My grandparents had 6 kids, and lived pretty well in the suburbs. All off his salary from drafting maps. My parents both worked blue collar jobs, and just got by raising 2 kids. Now, I can't really afford any children.

[paulinemoira]

The woman at 18:30 is spot on! Why would someone have a child, knowing that child is going to have a miserable life?

[CountDankula]

The problem is the government and rising cost, they want kids but can't afford it

[medrastica]

Wow, it was astounding to watch this interview and feel so represented by the words of women that live in the opposite side of the world (I'm from Italy). I felt like there were no barriers, no cultural differences that could prevent me in really understand what they were saying.
I love and support them all.

[floralee]

I am a Taiwanese woman. Taiwan’s birth rate is competing with SK’s to be lowest in the world. I personally think it stems from a few issue.
1. Housing: when we are finally more stable in our career (28 or above), we often need to choose between putting down or deposit for a house or having a kid. Most people will choose a house since raising a kid without housing security is terrifying
2. Social structure: many East Asian country has this insane idea that woman needs to give up their job when they have kids. Many companies also use insane tactic to force pregnant women to quit. If today women got divorced by their husband after having the kid, they will have little financial prospect for the future since single mom’s employability goes down. Not to mention in this economy, one working parent is often not enough. The amount of financial burden that’s put on man from the society also creates isolation between man and their families. It is very unhealthy for either side.
3. Future prospect: if you talk to young people, you will often hear how pessimistic about our own future. As GenZ I grew up during a global recession and graduated college in a pandemic. Between AI and climate change’s affect catching the developed world, I do not know how to prepare for the next generation.

[marrs]

With all things considered with how Korean society is as an whole you cannot even blame people if they say they do not wish to have children. Most adults & people are unhappy & others simply can’t even afford to

[Unrecyclabletrash]

There is a saying men want children like they want puppies, Whereas women knows how much children has impact over them. And this shows in this video too