Why South Korea is Literally Going Extinct

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Select video clips courtesy of the AP Archive

Special thanks to MapTiler, OpenStreetMap Contributors, and GEOlayers

[MionMikan]

As someone who has lived in South Korea for almost a decade, let me just point out one thing: Housing in South Korea is actually affordable, as long as it's not in Seoul. Every city in South Korea except for Seoul is actually experiencing a massive aging and depopulation crisis right now, similar to Japan. Many elementary schools are closing because there simply aren't enough young people to populate them, and the working age group have all moved to Seoul to find jobs. The heavy urbanization and focus on Seoul is one of the major reasons why the country is in this predicament. Many young South Koreans would actually prefer not to live in Seoul if given the choice. The problem is, they simply cannot because all the jobs are there. Therefore, all the areas with cheap land and housing goes unused while prices for homes in Seoul skyrocket and more and more young people are trapped in a nightmare of servitude to the chaebols unless they marry rich, win the lotto, get rich on bitcoin (which was a whoooole thing back 2016-2020). The government has tried to alleviate this centralization around Seoul by building Sejong City an hour south of Seoul to house most of the government functions, but it's been a failed project so far. Seoul remains the place where everything happens while the rest of South Korea is left to die.

[ChineseKiwi]

It's quite amazing how they were able to fit two dystopias in one peninsula.

[Jane-qhyd]

Love how North and South Korea fought a brutal war to see whether Capitalism or Communism would rule their country. Now 70 years later both of them have developed to show the absolute worst case scenario of both economic models

[ej_makesvideos]

“How many children do you have?”
*0.68 children*

[CSDragon]

Babies, unfortunately, do not provide short-term benefits for Samsung shareholders

[MrIansmitchell]

It’s almost like when you make living standards worse for each successive generation, people lose interest in becoming parents.

[sunggyulee]

South Korean Life:
- Elementary school: spend around 30 hours a week in school, then spend another 5-10 hours in hagwons. For a total of around 35-40 hours of study a week. Basically, a full-time job.
- Middle school: spend around 40-45 hours a week in school, then spend another 10-20 hours in hagwons. For a total of around 50-65 hours of study a week. Yikes.
- High school: spend around 50-60 hours a week in school, then spend another 10-20 hours in hagwons. For a total of around 60-80 hours of study a week. Double Yikes.
Work Life:
Statistics are very tricky. It is often quoted that South Korea has an average of 1967 hours of work per week, roughly 37.8 hours per weeks. However, this number considers part-time work, and holidays. It also doesn't account of illegal unpaid overtime. The reality is a lot grimmer.
- Work for 40 ordinary hours a week with 12 hours of overtime, which in most cases, they are almost mandatory. This is only the "legal" amount. Often you will work even more and will have to work overtime illegally unpaid. The average for a full-time employee is around 60 hours.

How is that life? Where do you even find to time to properly date?

If you are a parent, would you want your child to fucking study 60-80 hours a week?

Hell no.

[mushrifsaidin]

I feel bad for those new generations, they'll experience hell to support the older generations and going to be blamed for being "lazy" and "irresponsible" just for being born in that society.

[Illjwamh]

I was a teacher at a private English academy for five years. It was often said amongst the staff that we needed to be understanding and compassionate toward our students because for many of them, we see them more than their parents do.

[yongchen__I]

Another thing is that South Korea has a really tough parenting culture, and a lot of kids decide to su!cide because of the stress and expectations their parents pressure on them, the same also works for China, India and Japan

[DonnaKWeaverAuthor]

Kids are expensive. People in the US seem to prefer dogs and cats.

[Clone]

Turns out people wont have kids if you have to work 80 hours a week just survive

[tiago]

In 200 years, historians will be baffling how Koreans became prosperous, crushed the price of a TV by 1500% and then suddenly and mysteriously vanished

[the_hiroman]

Government: "Why isn't our cattle having offspring???

[carlossolalorente]

North Korea, the example of why communism doesn't work; and South Korea, the example of why wild capitalism doesn't work.

[greycommotion]

Government: "Work long hours with low pay and then have a family of five in a two-room apartment with no garden or personal space, please."

Young South Koreans: "How about no?"

[PinkGracie]

Thanos: "I will decrease the population by half"
South Korea: "No, I'll do it myself"

[BooDamnHoo]

So, there's o reason North Korea should feel the need to invade South Korea. They just sit back about a decade and then just walk into a nearly empty country.

[naipe]

I am foreign that married a Korean, live, work and have toddlers in South Korea and in my view their we have the sickest materialist and unhappy society I'll ever seen. Also I receive the government help for children and I'm grateful for that. But even thought I'm making every effort so my children a great non pressure or competitive childhood but their social trends are so strong that I'll leave here to return to USA or Mexico.

[DaehyeonKim-sdqj]

As a South Korean, I can confirm our society is very competitive. However, it’s not just to get into the chaebols; most parents think doctors are the best job since they pay very well. As a result, the race for medical school is so high that getting into them is deemed harder than getting into the SKY universities. I would also like to add as a high school student that our private education is very fierce. Last year, after school ended at 4:30, I would immediately go to private academies, and move between them until midnight(the government bans academies to teach over 10pm, but few actually follow). It was very tiring😢