How South Korea Is Running Out of Children

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In the richest countries, fewer and fewer people want to have children. The falling birth rate is practically a generalized phenomenon throughout the developed world. We are talking about a fertility rate of only 0.78 children per woman in 2022. A level so low that we could almost say that in South Korea, having children has become an anomaly. And, watch out, because in Seoul this rate is even worse, hold on to your chair, we are talking about only 0.59 children per woman.

Why on earth do South Koreans have so few children? What is the government trying to do to reverse this situation? Have you heard of marriage brokers? In this video we tell you all the details. It will not leave you indifferent.
#Korea #Birth #Marriage
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Peter Zeihan summed it up best: When we were living on the farms, children were free labor. In an urban environment, children are an expensive hobby.

poodlescone
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You're forgetting one important factor, which considering the exclusive focus on women as a theme of this video is not surprising, but I'd argue is hugely significant... Most Korean children do not have a normal childhood. Particularly in terms of education.

In Korea, it's seen as hugely important to have as accomplished an education as possible. As a result, most parents start hiring tutors and signing their kids up to classes before they even start school and even kindergarten's are specifically focused on education. When they later start school, kids have long school days from grade 1 with a specific focus on memorization and learning facts at scale. And over the course of a young person's school life, those school days get further and further extended and eventually most children get signed up to after school classes and studies. As they reach high school it's common that students spend 15+ hours every day on studying and those that don't are looked down on as lazy or delinquent. After that it's expected that you attend university and about 74% of all Koreans do so, usually right after high school... On top of that, once they enter the work force, expectations on how much you're expected to work leave precious little time for personal activities.

All this means that at graduation from university, you have a whole nation of 20 somethings that none of them had a chance to be a kid, play around and experience things other than studying. And they're finally given their first opportunity, maybe ever, to actually make their own choices and experience all the things they likely feel they missed out on. You think they're gonna wanna spend that first taste on actual freedom on starting a family? Probably not, not in a global world where they know that other choices are available. Most people choose to try to enjoy their life as much as possible, but considering Korean often work over 60 hours per week, most people work through their bucket lists very very slowly... And by the time most people are satisfied, many are already in their 40s and there's precious little time for children.

So really, Korea's birth rate problem is so multi-faceted that it's almost impossible to fix. You can't fix it with a new law or a check in the mail... It's cultural and societal, essentially the soul of Korea is preventing people from wanna have children.

Djungelurban
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I'm South Korean and I'm in my late 20s.

In Korea, we say "We will be the first generation to be poorer than our parents' generations."

There are tons of complicated reasons but this is why our fertility decreases so sharply and here's what we think : Now we have to raise our child in even more competitive society with less money.

More expensive hobby(children) + Less Money(Being poorer than parents) = Give up hobby(No Children)


(For me, I'll get married and have at least two kids only because I got lucky to have parents who can help me financially and I get paid little more than average 20s.)

sally
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Too much stress, no wonder the birthrate is falling. The men and women are living only for their jobs.

dragosstanciu
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How can they expect people care for kids when they can hardly even care for themselves?

johnjackson
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As a woman I find it ridiculous that the solution implied in this video for the birth rate problem in South Korea would lie on their society be more open with being a single mother! Clearly women already feel overloaded with the entire responsibility of raising a child putting on their shoulders INSIDE A MARRIAGE, being a single mother is way more demanding and difficult! If women do not want to get married because they are feeling overload, they obviously will not want to have children just on their own, having even more pressure over them! The solution is clearly a cultural shift where MEN must take part of the responsibility of taking care of the children with their partners! Not put 100% of the responsibility of raising children entirely on women only, that's the very reason why they don't want marry in the first place!

rossanasparvoli
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If you want people to have children, people need TIME, more work-life balance, and for men to be active in raising children.

QuteraFX
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Most nations are more concerned about providing retirement benefits to older citizens than they are about maintaining birth rates which is what allows them to maintain the benefits for older citizens.

matthewshields
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There's always talk that young women postpone or forego kids for career/travel/partying but it's never acknowledged that a lot of men do not want to support a child because then there's less money for more fun things.

glorycybertron
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it is hard to have kids when all your time and money goes into maintaining a comfortable life, no savings. having kids is a huge sacrifice nowadays. it means no saving for retirement as that money will go to child care and expenses in a system designed to make money no a living.

ngpb
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I've watched many of these as I've lived in Korea for 15 years and this is a very good explanation. Money is part of the problem, not the main issue, but if you interview people on the street they will give that as a simple answer.
Family systems are still very conservative and younger women especially do not want to get trapped in the older generations idea of family.
Having children is a career ender or at least a huge career setback for most women here, the women I know who took 1 year off after giving birth were treated very poorly by their companies when they returned and for men it's mostly unthinkable. If they choose to become a housewife then they are completely reliant on their husband for the rest of their lives and the husband also has the burden of having to be the sole money earner for the rest of his life too. If they get divorced or their husband loses his job then it's basically game over.
Other factors I've noticed:
- Lack of high quality flexible or part-time jobs as people have to choose full time very long hours in the office or high school wage part time jobs. There are almost no opportunities for housewives coming back to work.
- Older/younger generation extreme culture gap. Multi-generational support for raising children is much less common and also more difficult due to the generation gap. It also just causes a lot of stress/conflict for many people here.
- Poor mental health care, high stress lives and very high depression/suicide rates.
- Culture change no longer seeing marriage and children as an outright necessity.
- Education system is literal hell and young people don't want their kids to experience that.
- Korea transitioning from a very patriarchal society causing a lot of tension between men and women.
- Extremely competitive society where appearance/job/money are highly valued.
- Housing affordability, especially in Seoul.
Basically you have to really, really want to have kids to overcome all the challenges of having children in Korea.

emsie
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Working full time and being a full time parent and homemaker sounds like hell. You cannot even divorce and leave after that even if you face domestic abuse because you face discrimination and lack of public support. You basically have to slave away and sign your life to someone else.

CuAnge
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I remember reading an income graph when I was already a few years into my career. With my income being single I was considered lower middle class. But if I had a dependent/child I'd be under the poverty line. That definitely did not encourage me to have kids.

LeannsAdventures
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I think a major point that is being ignored is that many of us simply don’t want to have kids. It’s not about money, relationship, benefits, policy etc, I don’t want kids and you couldn’t pay me to change my mind. Most of my friends think similarly.

theintrovertadventurer
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South Korea: The woman needs her man's permission to have the child!

Also South Korea: Children is a woman's business!

The math: **not mathing**

britneybij
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Nobody understands that people will not have kids in an absolut selfles way. In the former days, having kids was always a way to ensure the legacy or the retirement agreements . But in modern todays, the parents are expected to have nothing in return of raising the kids.

jojospice
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It’s not that easy. A population decline due to low birth rates means that there will be a much heavier burden on the working force due to expenses of retirees

Nickelback
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In many developed countries, people don't REALLY start living until they're in their mid-twenties. This is very different to just my parent's generation for example, who at that age were already home-owners, married with 2 kids.

Cost of housing is too expensive so adults are infantilised for too long - no independence.

High childhood pressures and trauma mean many people don't enjoy their childhood and they never grow up experiencing freedom (cram schools, intense competition and social pressure, family pressure, high suicide rates etc). So when they finally get freedom they don't want to burden their life again, we feel like we've finally earnt it to relax, except we can only barely relax because the economy is so bad and we still can't afford many things.

I think solutions would be to not put such strict pressure on education that isn't even helpful (cramming for exams that you never remember the information for?). A system more like what the Finnish have is healthier and also world-class/still top performing. Those who are not destined to be doctors, lawyers etc should have apprenticeships offered as a respectable alternative from aged 16 onwards. If you have started earning your money and degree at 16, then you are already ahead of all your peers before you've even turned 20. You can start experiencing more early on and feel like you've 'lived your life' AND get a good establishment of the security of a house and a good partner (and high seniority at work). A lot of people would be very open to at least one child in these circumstances

MoniiChanTheUnicorn
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Politicians do not realise that the cause for this problem is the Economy itself and they dare not change it

razvanagafitei
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Desperate times demand desperate measures. I’m a little surprised there was no mention of government provided nurseries for working young women who would otherwise have to give up their careers to free up more time to care for their children.

ismailnyeyusof