South Korea is Disappearing

South Korea has the world's lowest fertility rate, which indicates the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime. It recorded a rate of just 0.72 in 2023 - down from 0.78 the previous year, the latest drop in a long string of yearly declines. The country as it stands is on track to disappear
sources
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www.npr.org/20...
www.bbc.com/ne...
time.com/69628...
www.koreancult...
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www.history.co...
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Podcast: historyofevery...

[@historyofeverythingpodcast]

I know for a fact there will be people commenting about other creators who made videos on this exact topic this week. I was shocked and laughed when less than two days after my poll determining this is the video we would make, other videos started coming out. Obviously you can see that I am not copying anyone, I am making something based off of plan that was voted for by the audience. It’s just a really strange coincidence that these would occur at the same time

[@houjous5131]

To summarize your video, tell me if im wrong: Jobs are lacking - while simultaneously, workers are doing free overtime; which in turn, makes it so those same people don't have the time nor money to raise a child. Seems like this entire thing gets largely (but not completely) solved by mandating 40 hour work weeks and making free overtime illegal. This would force an increase of hired workers, increases pay across the board & gives people more time at home. I'm sure that's not the only fix that needs to happen, but am I missing something that makes it less straight forward? Seems like corporations have too much power....

[@WhackyWeiner]

You hopped on a trend. It's life. It's been being talked about. Obviously it came into your algorithm and you put it in our. That's how communication works. Don't be so self conscious. There's no way you were in the middle of shitting and had an original thought and said "I have to warm people on South Korea fertility". They been complaining about it.

[@auraguard0212]

LOBOTOMY CORPORATION! 😅

[@hydronpowers9014]

You did nothing wrong. Everyone happens to think about the same topic around the same time without saying anything to each other 😂

[@LooseGoose171]

You​@@houjous5131😮

[@ianmason96]

It’s quite impressive that Korea’s managed to fit two dystopias on one peninsula

[@romanplays1]

ya got a communist hermit kingdom on one end. and the closest thing to cyberpunk (the corporations having more might than the state bit. not the cool tech) with a baby bust to boot on the other.

[@dx-ek4vr]

I hope South Korea gets it together soon, though, cause I bet North Korea is trying to find some way of taking advantage of this

[@benjaminsente7430]

China, the USSR and the USA had a hand in that. A strong hand.

[@romanplays1]

@@dx-ek4vr to be fair. all south korea has to do to make north korea implode is airdrop some food and promise more if they boot the kim regime out. sounds mad. but north korean border guards (who usually come from family's close to the regime or atleast are trusted by it) litterally defected for cookies before. so it could work.

[@robertduluth8994]

@@dx-ek4vrthe south has failed lets invade them

[@KuronoCthulhu]

Work teaching English in SK for a while. The kids older than 13 or 14 are burnt out. Suicide in high school age is fairly common. The situation is horrible. The poor kids put themselves under so much pressure to succeed that many of them crack.

[@Vic_Trip]

This makes my heart break with all strict asian countries... It's ridiculous how far these countries are willing to push their children/young people for something fixable. IF ONLY they used their heads instead of their dogmas to work FOR them... But no, tradition is everything. Because apparently you absolutely MUST keep the same work culture in order for koreans to not have an identity crisis... Their governamental system only perpetuates this sick way of thinking. They HAVE to get past this "empire mentality" into one that looks after individuals and opens up the market diversity.

[@tejave0ojnc]

"Suicide in high school age is fairly common." no it's not.. what's making the s. korean suicide rate so high is due to the extremely high suicide rate among the elderly

[@KuronoCthulhu]

@@tejave0ojnc My man, I was there. I knew the teachers and kids. All of them knew at least one high schooler or middle schooler who had committed suicide. The teachers are forced to move to a different school every few years, and each of them said they'd seen a student die. Twenty plus teachers all said the same thing, and they had all worked at half a dozen different schools from one another before I met them. I'm not saying that the elderly don't need help or shouldn't be talked about, but why make a comment trying to deny something important like this? What's your point in saying "no it's not." If you want to bring attention to the elderly then do that, but don't deny other issues while making your statement.

[@tejave0ojnc]

@@KuronoCthulhu The statistics show the suicide rate among young people/students are similar or just slightly higher than other developed (OECD) countries.. Tragic as it is, it is not unique to S. Korea as you or others seem to suggest... What is really unusual about S. Korea is insanely highly suicide rate among the elderly..

[@johnnyonthespot4375]

@@tejave0ojnc -- Go and take a walk in the other persons sneakers for a bit before you even try to make such claims - HE has LIVED there -- YOU have NOT. That is like trying to claim you know all about California's issues & how to fix them because you had a 2 hour layover at LAX -

[@Elsneakakaze]

Too much education, too much work, too much taxation, too much cost of living. You need, disposable income, cheap housing, free time, and a social life, in order for people to procreate.

[@alastor8091]

Too much female "empowerment" to go and turn yourself into a slave for corporate overlords.

[@callen1904]

Liqure helps, thier beer is weak as f**k. Even looks like water.

[@ThermicLight]

Lowering the cost of living would certainly help. However the west has it's own issues and so much of it is because people are arresting their development, wasting so much of during their 20's, than getting on with life.

[@BoredSquirell]

Free time and boredom, that's the answer. If the most of your time is dedicated to bare survival you won't even think about having kids. Ironically, pre-industrial society had more free time on average. Yes you could spend dawn to dusk working in a field, but that was like 2 months in a year. Just think, among the people you know how many say something like "oh I dream about having children, but now is not the time because of ...". And it's never about the money, it about the mental pressure of life.

[@Hibangan]

Why then was it 6+ during MUCH harder, poorer, more trying times? During Japanese occupation, Koreans were basically slaves. No disposable income, no free time, almost no social life. Life was MUCH, MUCH harder and worse.

[@Blader445]

Most of what I recall from South Koreans is that South Korea’s culture is very…soul crushing on people.

[@SuperLifestream]

Which also doesn't encourage anyone to travel and move there.

[@firingallcylinders2949]

They also have a very anti child culture. Every Korean person I know isn't interested in having kids. My buddy is dating a Korean woman right now and she doesn't want kids. Not sure what's causing that mentality but it's prevalent.

[@kosefix]

You mean Seoul crushing I assume?

[@thruntroll2983]

​@@kosefix Nice

[@dimaignatiev6370]

Job centered mentality?

[@teezzmegee972]

Welcome to Korea! You'll either live in soul crushing conditions with a brutal social hierarchy or work with the risk of starvation and execution! There is no in-between 👁_👁

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

In the North there was a risk of execution. In the south, thousands of people commit suicide every year

[@guybrushthreepwood362]

Live in a cyberpunk dystopia or an Orwellian dystopia

[@teezzmegee972]

@@guybrushthreepwood362 Exactly ^^

[@fell5514]

A voucher for 1500 dollars when babies cost over a hundred thousand dollars even in the best of circumstances is an insult.

[@prettyboyjeremy]

100,000 over the course of 18 years is like $490 a month. I think a baby is worth more than a used car. Is your life worth more than a used car?

[@fell5514]

@@prettyboyjeremy I'm giving SK the benefit of the doubt and imagining that they have decent food assistance and free healthcare and college already with that number. In America it would be easily twice that.

[@fell5514]

@markstein2845 The government is in fact supposed to give you money.

[@SlermmMcderm]

Well the government is begging people to have children in order to have tax revenue 😂 kind of asinine to assume that the government paying to facilitate that is some form of begging .. they want close to a hundred years of consistent taxes yet feel like paying to assist in raising the birth rate is “beyond their power”

[@stunningandbased5516]

@markstein2845 The government takes money and redistributes it in the way it sees fit, thats the literal point of it lmao

[@damian99669]

A bunch of old politicians trying to figure out why the social and economic conditions they created are having horrible results on the younger generations. All while thinking that things are great because they already got theirs. I will be shocked if they manage to even get this number above 1 in the next decade.

[@Patson20]

People tend to forget that Korea was a slave state for pretty much the last three hundred years, was locked in a brutal civil war in the 1950s and was in a military dictatorship until 1987. Joe biden was a senator when korea had a dictator

[@andrewn5657]

This comment could apply to any advanced nation. Fuckin nailed it

[@stunningandbased5516]

Honestly the same problem in Europe and the US, except here the old politicians think that constant migration is some sort of "fix". The birthrates here would look similarly shitty if you excluded first-gen immigrants.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

@@andrewn5657 Comment applies to EVERY culture, society, nation that has ever existed where ONE individuals get an unfair unjustified share of power, wealth, while doing relatively less useful labor.

[@echoecho3155]

People will say immigrants will fix these problems, which assume: 1) There will be enough migrants to fulfill the population gap. 2) The immigrants will just fit into the existing business-cultural machine without any significant changes.

[@jayforeman5299]

I don't know anyone that will say that immigration will fix this perfectly, it's not magic but obviously it would help massively. In South Korea's case anything would help. When your society is so strict, closed off and so focused on work that your own population can't take it, you know something is wrong.

[@evilsworn2901]

Worked for Germany

[@robertduluth8994]

@@evilsworn2901germany is still turning to fascism 😂

[@echoecho3155]

@@jayforeman5299 The problem is the assumption that bodies are the only issue. You can't replace vast numbers of Koreans with Hungarians, Nigerians, or Guatemalans and still keep Korean culture or Korean business processes. The changes will be just as drastic as population collapse. Of course, in Korea's case, as is the case everywhere with falling populations, the only concern is making sure the machine of capital keeps moving. The death of a culture is a small casualty so long as widgets can continue to be manufactured and dollars invested.

[@thesuperintendent4290]

​@@evilsworn2901Well no... AFD and the German economy is proof that immigration cannot solve this issue and that many African and Middle Eastern countries birth rates are falling dramatically.

[@Sprt1337]

Corporations own the country, how can a man and a woman raise a family when everyday you have soul crushing work and no time for yourself?

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

Samsung Made 20% economy gdp And only employs 2% of the population.

[@averybaumann]

America, all of North, South America, Europe, Russia, most of Asia, EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY WITH FEMINISM has exactly the same collapsing birth and marriage rate, some are further along the curve. It is hidden in some countries because they are brain draining young people from othe countries. ONLY islamic and other cultures without feminism have a growing population, islamic countries have women in college, long work weeks , urbanization. In feminist cultures the top half percent of men by appearence get over 90% of the dates and sex while 38% of american 30 year Olds are still virgins and have zero sexual options. If 90% of women won't settle for anything less than the top half percent you are going to have a massive population collapse

[@2475wag]

That’s just like America.

[@JB-yb4wn]

Well those corporations are extremely self destructive.

[@Sprt1337]

​@@2475wagagreed but south Korea and Japan have the salaryman way of living.

[@flioink]

Work, work, work, procreate, die. Wow, can't see why people are choosing not to have kids. It's such an appealing way to spend your days! Also, those "measures" aren't gonna work.

[@ThermicLight]

Ah yes people are always so reductive when it comes to responsibility. Of course no such excuses are had when arresting ones development with parties, booze and hookup culture.

[@thespector2685]

@@ThermicLight I was in school and working my ass off through my early 20's. I'm 27 burnt out, unable to afford a house to have kids and unable to afford food half the time. My husband is IT and just as burnt out but sure I hate responsibility. -_-

[@ThermicLight]

@@thespector2685 - Everyone seems to have their own special story about why they don't. Of which I'm sure some is legit. While many others, especially those who take it very personally and get triggered, make contrived and cherry picked narratives about why it's impossible despite plenty of others showing otherwise.

[@thereseemstobeenanerror1219]

​​​@@ThermicLight Talking like that is a good way to get people to disregard your points in a rapid fashion. Even if you might be right, nobody wants to agree with the guy who's being a jerk.

[@Demopans5990]

@ThermicLight As if Koreans even have parties, booze and hookup culture.

[@DaAxiomatic]

When you're poor, kids are free labour. When you're rich, kids are expensive hobbies.

[@rabidwallaby84]

When you're poor, kids are a financial risk. When you're rich, you don't understand why the poor struggle and don't reproduce.

[@sasi5841]

That logic doesn't hold in countries with restrictive child labor laws (i.e. all developed countries and most developing countries)

[@yankychannels]

@@DaAxiomatic agricultural versus industrial society, not poor versus rich

[@storm___]

@@sasi5841yes we need to give a tax break of 33% for every child and make income tax completely gone for parents of 3 or more children. Also we need to allow 1 income to support a family again and one stay at home parent become the norm again. But thats very anti capitalist because thats not maximizing profits.

[@Connor_Roush]

Yup, that is typical mindset for a materialistic society.

[@paperclipcereal5896]

I saw this argument elsewhere but it sums up a good part of this succinctly. Children have gone from a natural asset to an expensive investment

[@beplanking]

I’m no economist, but the notion that everyone can work 60+ hours a week and there isn’t enough money coming into the country to pay for their pension fund and give people enough to buy a house seems ridiculous. There must be leeches at the top sucking away all the cash from this excessive productivity. They seem to have speedrun industrialization and now they’re giving us a preview of what we’ll face here in the us if things don’t start to turn around

[@someguycalledCh0wdah]

Well it's a corporatocrartic country, the businessmen at the top are just stripping the country for parts

[@fanOmry]

They have welfare. And what pays your pension is the taxes from current working class. if that working class is smaller than the pensioners population, then that pension is not

[@johnnyonthespot4375]

Its ironic reading these comments - People talk al sorts of game about other countries and their corruption yet these same people refuse to see what is happening in THIS country - I do not know if I will be alive to see it but an economic check is necessary in this country because we are WAYYY too top heavy which will bring upon itself a massive collapse - Ironically exactly what's happening in S. Korea - To be Rich one needs a pile of humans to get oneself there. Period. No Humans ? No Riches.

[@beplanking]

@@johnnyonthespot4375 Don't think you read the last sentence I wrote.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

​@@someguycalledCh0wdah Wrong. It's a what-ever you choose to make it country. Stop talking like nobody caused this to happen. Stop talking like nobody is responsible for that. Otherwise, you have no right to attack or accuse liberals or leftists or Communists or Feminists of "not taking responsibility". We can just say Well that's the way things are. It's just a Feminist or Antinatalist or Communist nation.

[@Indyofthedead]

Kids are expensive and require a lot of time and attention. Kind of something that doesn't work well with people who have to work all the time just to live paycheck to paycheck. Why is this so difficult for politicians to acknowledge?

[@pauliusiv6169]

why? because politicians are greedy, arrogant and short-sighted, that's why

[@herbayum76]

Because of the culture of anciënniteit...the older the more respect...this makes it impossible to make the systemic change that is needed

[@SgtRocko]

Just shared this with my in-laws IN South Korea. They got very, very quiet about 1/3 into it. After it was over, I thought maybe my cam had frozen, except for them blinking. The first comment was from my mother-in-law "Has he lived here? Is he a professor of Korean society?" NOT in the "What does HE know?" sense, in the "OMFG he KNOWS us" sense. They own a chain of food stores, so the clan's kids are sought-after for matches, since they're quite well off and are employers. Even they, however, are worried, since none of the younger generation has more than two kids. My mother-in-law recently instituted having a coop day-care system in their stores, to encourage their female employees to 1) have children and 2) ensuring they stay working after giving birth. That it ALSO ensures loyalty from the employees is "juuuuuust" a byproduct. You hit a home run with this one, Stak. My in-laws were all joking that North Korea doesn't need n*kes to take over the South, they just have to wait 'til everone in the South is too geriatric to fight an invasion.

[@cynthiaherbst3909]

Assuming North Korea doesn't starve itself out...based on health assessments of recent defectors, NK situation seems more and more...well grim

[@Devilishlybenevolent]

And then they got up and clapped... LOL

[@CBRN-115]

​@@cynthiaherbst3909 NK is now allies with Russia. I'm sure NK has support from them

[@cynthiaherbst3909]

@@CBRN-115 publicly they claim so, realistically can Russia divert the amount of food stuff necessary to keep NK on side...and still leverage that with Aftican Juntas they also need on side? Not rhetorical, it's just...we've seen their logistics be heavily strained.

[@thereseemstobeenanerror1219]

​@@Devilishlybenevolent What a fantastic way to say your life is extremely boring.

[@glenmurie]

I just checked, and like the US South Korea is also suffering a critical shortage of tradespeople. All the push for college degrees to get white collar jobs has left them with a lack of plumbers and welders, and even telecom and IT people.

[@MK_ULTRA420]

There is no lack of telecom and IT people in the USA, that's just a myth that corporations spread so that they can justify hiring foreign workers for less.

[@Vic_Trip]

This is why you can't push a standard. A society needs diversity and you must account for different jobs. There is no "one size fits all".

[@EnterpriseC14]

No were here, we just get paid jackshit in No-union states, such as Texas. And well, not needing a union, a license, or an education to be a tradesmen. Pay is poor since, anyone and their mother can say they can do it.

[@EinFelsbrocken]

Politicians:"Oh; what are we gonna do about this crisis?!? Lets cook up another surreal 2648392 step plan to save our future!" Literally everyone else: "Well we could *try* and make our lives like.. even slightly worth living in exchange for some economical concessions..?" Politicians: "Lol, nice one! Okay; how about forced dating programs?"

[@Falling_Doc]

then why people in poor countries with terrible labour law, that works more than 10 hours a day have mroe children despite having less money?

[@dieltolo6112]

Different circumstances ​@@Falling_Doc

[@krystelhardesty9960]

@@Falling_Doc In those poor counties you can live in a hut on a trash mound with no water or toilet and no one is going to call the cops to arrest you and take your kids. Also in a lot of those countries you don't have to send you kids to school so instead they can work and make the family money.

[@Vic_Trip]

This is one thing that gets me: the government SHOULD NOT have the means to restrict YOU of building your own assets/house. It is immoral and just serves to get an upper hand in what is acceptable and what is not. Some restrictions are painted as "for your safety" when in reality there is no guarantee of safety when you are without the resources. It's better to allow people to do a half-ass job than restricting them out of a possibility altogether...

[@mekingtiger9095]

​@@Falling_Doc Their birth rates are also dropping really fast.

[@Nylon_riot]

"authorities went on to burm 200,000 historical documents. " As a history lover and armchair archeologist, everytime I hear something like this, I lose a little piece of my soul. Poor Korea.

[@chappy3125]

There's a reason Koreans hate the Japanese

[@mekingtiger9095]

​@@chappy3125 Valid.

[@sithlord5149]

poor historical records

[@avgperson6551]

As they say, it takes a village to raise a child. But in the developed world, each person has to be their own village, and that’s just a lot of responsibilities and pressure for one person to bear.

[@QuartetGhost]

After reading 90 stories on webtoons and being a lot of those stories taking place in Korea specifically Seoul this has answered all of my questions over certain aspects of life I see regularly in those comics like emphasis on education and a push for top grades to an aggressive degree and why all stories take place in Seoul this is rough after knowing this

[@thishandleistaken1011]

Cringe

[@psychospeech6189]

God sake man dont Frad Manwha for understanding a country!! God thats cringe Imagine if Asians assumed all Americans are like those shitty Disney shows

[@Vic_Trip]

No cringe. Go read Manwah Harambe

[@Timey254]

There is also another reason: politics. Women have the fewest equal rights in the entire industrialized world in South Korea. Women are becoming increasing liberal since they want an end to that practice. In return, and due to the crushing challenges men are facing, a lot of men have resorted to a stance of "why should they be happy?" and have become drastically more conservative as a result. Not just "women shouldn't get more rights" and more like "if anything they deserve less rights". You need look no further than the "Gacha game drama" to see how intense it has become. There is a fascinating two parter series by "Moon Channel" on that. Where a single pinching gesture by a single character in a single frame (you know one of the most common gestures a human hand makes) is enough to get female artists fired, their entire presence erased and all art they ever made replaced by something else and all credits in a game removed... because men think a pinching gesture is a feminist symbol and being feminist means these women need to be cancelled. Never mind that most of the time the storyboarding for said animations, including the pinching gestures, were made by male superiors and they simply executed it. Turns out, women don't want to make families with men that want to deny them their rights. Big shocker. The divide of men becoming more conservative and women more liberal which leads to frictions that prevent romantic relationships from forming and loneliness especially among men as a result happens everywhere in the West now, but South Korea the divide is most extreme. Whatever "culture war" Europe and America are experiencing is NOTHING compared to what's happening in South Korea... and it actively affects birth rates as a result.

[@Demopans5990]

Korean women would much rather prefer to date westerners because of all that. Even disregarding the usually better citizenship/residency options (US/CA/EU), westerners are normal by comparison

[@violetskies14]

I have heard so many SK women warning western women not to date SK men and talking about the conservative and patriarchal nature of Korean marriages.

[@mekingtiger9095]

Okay, I have a tendency to mock modern feminism nowadays, but this is messed up. Like, even for me.

[@oh4835]

FYI, the gacha game you mentioned was totally justified. The main audience was men and letting work that came from a member that ridicules your main playbase is ridiculous. Also, women lacking rights? We have serveral laws that majorly benefit women, to the point some bad seeds abuse it. Look at the subway or mall parking lots. There's space for women everywhere. Do you think a country lacking women's right would have these? And you wanna talk fair? How about young Korean men being drafted to the military to waste 2years of their life, with nothing to gain benefit from it, and possibly die or commit suicide from bullying. Tell me, how is that FAIR?

[@Demopans5990]

@@oh4835 A society that doesn't respect women would obviously have them. Japan has women only train cars because sa is so normalized. There isn't really a need for special subway cars in the US, even in a city as dense as NYC because we do actually enforce some laws, believe it or not, but more importantly, American culture doesn't regard women as any more special or different than men. Over in Europe, similar circumstances. Over in South Korea, hierarchy is everything, and gender is a very major factor, so South Korean society does regard women as somehow special/different compared to men. Also, creators making fun of their audience is par for the course in the US, freedom of speech and whatnot, so we obviously find the Project Moon debacle incredibly odd.

[@kaiserachim1454]

I serve with a lot of Koreans in the US military, some of them are first generation immigrants. They all say the same thing, if you want to have a work life balance and start a family you immigrate to America. Which, fun fact the Korean government will still count your children towards their numbers even if you have no intention of returning. So I'm pretty sure that number is even lower if you remove the Korean diaspora.

[@dreamingflurry2729]

It's no wounder! NK (and Japan, too!) is a country of extremes! You have parents who usually have a single kid and then force all their expectations onto that one kid! That kid should play at least one instrument, shall go to college, shall study something prestigious etc. - hell, have you looked at their school-system? They have long school-hours and they ship the kids off to prep-schools well into the night in most cases! Those kids have almost no freetime during the week! Later on when they have that prestigious career many don't want to cut back to have kids (or they don't want to put kids through that!)

[@10secondsrule]

You are completely missing the point and interpreting some facts wrong. Have you even watch this at all or just comment? After school are the results of long hours spend at work - kids finish school at 3pm, parents are home 8-10pm and not because they want, more like that’s what is expected - there’s also a massive competition for places in a good university so you can get a shot working for some of cheobols wich will set you for life - not as much as in the past but still. If you don’t go to afterschool you are getting left behind as well as you are alone as the rest of kids are there. Korea is a hierarchical society and you don’t want to be at the bottom. Money is the most important thing in Korea. It sets your status in the society so no wonder parents want their kids to get the best shot. It’s a horrible place to work and live but not in a way you think.

[@sullyschwartz2365]

​@@10secondsrulehe aint missing the point youre just off your meds tryna justify their behavior bahaha

[@MaFFiOsios]

​@@10secondsrule it's not a KR or JP thing the case about a family putting all their expectations on their 1 kid is a thing that I've seen in 1 child families regardless of their culture. Friends who were the only kids, family member who had only 1 kid, friend of my parents that chose to inly have 1 kid, they all ended expecting the kid to have high grades in school, be part of a heavily time consuming after school activity, and still put them thru tutoring or extra learning course.

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

The world managed to put 2 different Type dystopias on one peninsula

[@centercannothold]

Unfinished Hegelian dialectic. The Thesis and Anti-thesis must fight to reach the synthesis. But in Korea case because of foreign intervention, no synthesis can be reach, thus each become an extreme version of themself.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

@@centercannothold "because of foreign intervention" What "foreign intervention"? Everything that happens in Korea is by definition part of Korean culture, tradition.

[@mitchellseibel2859]

I didn’t even need to watch the video. Similar to here in the US you’ve made shit too expensive and put FAR too much burden on your working class. No shit no one’s having kids. They can’t afford it.

[@unpotatoedsalmon]

Two generations (Greatest/Silent) had lived through truly terrible times (Great depression) and won a war (WW2) saw the good times coming, They had lots of kids (Boomers) who they had nothing but hope for. These kids grew up during the greatest time to be alive but where spoiled and had no thoughts of those who come after. They burned our future at the pire of their own greed and self centerness

[@ThermicLight]

@@unpotatoedsalmon - Thinking boomers ruined it all is one of the most cringes takes that can be had. What do you think most boomers outside the US were doing? So many of them were still having to endure the ruins of WW2 that apparently every ignorant post generation brat likes to say was the "greatest time to be alive".

[@ByTheStorm]

Not really, though. They got a working culture that makes the USA look like Europe’s, and the suicide rates are just awful. It’s not perfect in America, but Eastern Asian countries are really dysfunctional on a level that people who’ve only witnessed them through pop culture media don’t quite understand.

[@echoecho3155]

@@mitchellseibel2859 US also has a terribly anti-child culture. Being focused on unbounded freedom, many people treat children as an impasse to parties, vacations, and other fun activities - an intrusion on their freedom. Media tends to portray marriage and family life as "quaint" at best and soul-crushing at worst. Throw that in with the factors you described, and you have a recipe for sub-replacement birthrates.

[@ByTheStorm]

@@unpotatoedsalmonI disagree with that assessment. Selfishness isn’t some generational trait. And neither is the support for those policies.

[@wayausofbounds9255]

SK was in a demographic crisis 20 years ago. This is what happens when you prioritize profits and the elderly over families. Also, over 200 billion since 2006 is only about 15 billion per year. SK had an annual operational budget of over 600 trillion last year. I'm not going to bother doing that math in my head but that 15 billion is actually incredibly small.

[@yourneighborhoodxenos]

There is a very interesting video on a country school in Japan that was going to close after its last 2 students graduated. Imagine a town of ANY SIZE having a school with only 2 children. I highly suggest it to those who were interested in this video. Been loving the content lately, dude, especially the geopolitic explanations

[@de245733]

Similar problem here in Taiwan too, nobody can afford houses = nobody can bring up childrens, yet the goverment would never do anything about the housing prices and all they do is try all of the "wacky fixes" that never ever works.

[@sookendestroy1]

Its the same in every country to be honest. "People arent having kids, so to fix the problem we are giving a hundred dollars a month for daycare... please ignore that the price of daycare has doubled"

[@rustomkanishka]

The life for a peasant is simply not worth living Then why would the peasants want to have children? How high does the suicide rate have to become before the powers that be realise that, i wonder.

[@ecthelionv2]

@@rustomkanishkathe irony in Poorer countries is staggering. They want more kids because they’re hinging on the hope that one of them might strike rich or marry into rich families.

[@alexfriedman2152]

Man Taiwan is beautiful. I really like the fact Chinese culture remained there. I always wonder how similar Taiwan culture is to Korean and Japanese.

[@RogueCheyne]

Guys being Dudes listening to Bros talking about Geopolitics that we can't influence - rough times and stormy seas ahead, me hearties!

[@raylenn4444]

We can't influence south korea, yes. But we CAN influence our local politics by learning from the failures of our neighbors.

[@JeffBilkins]

The housing factor is also happening in many other places. Surprisingly people don't start families if they can't afford a place for it.

[@Priception]

Governments will do anything but actually address the problem. Because that involves taking a good look at themselves, their culture, and going "this shit isn’t working, we need to scrap it all and restart"

[@MK_ULTRA420]

It's because once the bureaucrats actually solve all of the problems they were paid to solve, they will have worked themselves out of a job.

[@Vic_Trip]

This also has to do with the fact that Koreans and other Asian countries care too much about saving face and trying to make things look as perfect as possible. Instead of admitting their mistakes and being rational, their population will constantly point and shame those who are not the ideal model of a perfect being. So the best way out of it is to stop pressuring the perfectionist trap and actually incentivate people to learn to forgive, forget and understand that being in a lower rung is to be expected. As long as people put their priorities lower and try to adapt their best, things could work better. However that would also need to take in consideration that corporations that run the country make investments to expand capital flow, not retaining it to themselves. It should be the case for every corporation. Otherwise, the system fails...

[@firebornliger]

It also involves reversing the rights of the biggest voting block.

[@Priception]

@firebornliger Countries like South Korea and Japan are stuck in a death loop. Where to address these problems, they need to appeal to a minority of younger generations. Which policies would directly piss off the larger older generations. So the older generations will just vote for their own short term interests.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

Then ZERO SYMPATHY for anyone who VOTES FOR or DEFENDS the current government or the law "just because it's the law".

[@spartanhawk7637]

I legitimately laughed at the "guys being dudes" line. I've nearly fallen off the summit of two separate mountains on two different continents, checks out.

[@Jakeomgwtfisevenhappening]

Hey who'd have guessed that making it impossible to have a decent social life because of toxic work culture would lead to people not having kids? It's almost like you need free time, free income and a healthy dose of optimism to have kids.

[@ArthurGegenheimer]

Children represent people's hope for the future. Why aren't people having kids? *Gestures broadly*

[@spzaruba5089]

The competition inside of the Korean marketplace is brutal. A bad quarter and the company could fold. So 100% production from everyone, always.

[@bjornjonsson7037]

South korea is in an impossible situation. Women's mindset is very similar to western women while men and their families mindset is VERY old fashioned. Even I can understand why women in South Korea aren't interested in that. Japan is suffering from a similar problem.

[@athenabonney3909]

Yeah I mean just look at the 4B movement. Gender dynamics are definitely a significant part of the population crisis.

[@auraguard0212]

2 child replacement? OH NO! THAT DOESN'T ACCOUNT FOR DARWIN!

[@josepheastham9717]

(that's why it's 2.1 for population stability)

[@flyveto457]

​@@josepheastham9717 You can't have a 0.1 baby though.

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@flyveto457 Maybe you can't.

[@prestonjones1653]

​@@flyveto457 No, but ten people can have eleven babies.

[@maksimegaloman]

So the reality is: 1. Get education 2. Get out of Korea 3. Find job 4. Marry, have kids, forget Korea completely, have a normal life 5. Leave the land empty 6. North Korea moves in, and leave

[@ashutoshsethi6150]

Win win.

[@chrisbarclay2156]

6000 years of recorded history supports the "dudes will be dudes" comment. Keep up the fine work!

[@RaySmith-zg7od]

What exactly is dudes being dudes 😅🤔

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@RaySmith-zg7od Don't worry about it and go back to dilating.

[@Naamis1]

How does importing foreign people to help with the household help as they’re going to be faced with the same economic challenges as the current population is facing?

[@zakk143]

BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO: I'm gonna guess it's a mix of high-demand work culture, strict cultural/social expectations, and high cost of living that causes families to be pushed into the "I just can't afford to have a family" side... AFTER WATCHING: I mean, I was in the ballpark, but that's like calling something a "projectile" - could mean a ball of mud or a howitzer round. I had not understood the depths that this went to. Huge thanks for making this!!!

[@purelysmetalnightcore]

With declining birth rates worldwide it will be interesting to see how the big corporations running so many countries will fare when the higher ups that refuse to take pay cuts to pay people decent wages and give good benefits finally notice that their companies can't run without employees, and whatever employees are available are likely going to be uneducated and unable to do tasks such as accounting.

[@solarissv777]

AI and automation?

[@purelysmetalnightcore]

@solarissv777 You still need people to keep those systems running, and in this video the guy mentioned that increased automation hasn't really been helping Japan's work crisis.

[@sookendestroy1]

Why do you think they all have nuclear bunkers on remote islands now? They understand the path companies are pushing will destroy everything, from social collapse, climate change, chemicals like plastics in people and food, lower crop yields and stronger diseases, destabililizing world powers leading to more major wars and more inequality. They see the results and they will gladly let the world burn so they can rebuild in their image.

[@fuzzyhair321]

Then you have a lot of people out of work. That never goes well ever in history

[@solarissv777]

@@purelysmetalnightcore Japan is far behind in AI. All their automation was aimed at factory production, but an AI can replace many office jobs as well. Japanese are really good at hardware, but their software is far behind.

[@fenreer01]

Third Korea population video this week. Do you guys share a newsletter subscription?

[@historyofeverythingpodcast]

It’s a very weird coincidence…this was determined based off a community vote before any videos dropped. So while frustrating there’s not much I can do. At least what I try to do is explain context and history to a much greater degree

[@MariaRodriguez-dx6sm]

Maybe because of the announcement that South Korea birth rate is the lowest known in history for a country in peace and supposed prosperity, shocked basically everyone (economists, historians, journalists, politicians, just the public in general), people wanted to know why and of course it creates a lot of traffic for creator It also helps that basically every country is experienced a sharp decline in birth rates for similar reasons as South Korea.

[@bigorna4875]

​@@historyofeverythingpodcast Yours is definitely one the better ones, but it's also definitely funny everyone releasing a video on the same topic at basic the same time

[@sealking3838]

Its the quality of life thats the problem, people are not having babies because they cannot AFFORD them.

[@TrollOfReason]

Afford them financially or chronologically. No time to raise children well, no money to raise them without hardship.

[@sealking3838]

@@TrollOfReason If we are talking about Korea than I think its more of a time problem, men are often forced to go drinking with their bosses after work.

[@tomasrocha6139]

No, they used to be poorer and to have more kids

[@robertduluth8994]

@@tomasrocha6139having kids improved you economically then you were poor back then( before industrialization)

[@thesuperintendent4290]

​@@tomasrocha6139Many people instinctively want kids but cannot afford or make time for them.

[@lilnoah3915]

"Improve the Economy to fix the birthrate" Mf the economy is the reason for your low birth rate???

[@Falling_Doc]

people saying its expensive when urban poor countries like nigeria and ivory coast are still having lots of kids despite not being farmers and being poor

[@mekingtiger9095]

​@@Falling_Doc What if I told you their birth rates are ALSO plummeting at an alarming rate faster than what was initially forecasted?

[@Royed]

My god. Lmfao is this a podcast or just the actual fcking news. Lol Ahhh I love this guy

[@historyofeverythingpodcast]

Both. Current event and the history behind it. You can listen to the pure history podcast episodes here as well😊

[@baddreams0919]

@@historyofeverythingpodcast I love this channel cuz history explains a lot of the current world and can help you understand the future a little bit. In my country Mexico we had some huge elections some months ago and it was wild. My older relatives were crying out mexico was going to become venezuela, but thanks to history i know it won't at least not in the near future. But everyone got mad at me when i pulled out the historical facts xD

[@jackbharucha1475]

The North Koreans will just walk in and find nobody's home

[@langbo9999]

And the leader will make it look like a big victory and Of course lie a lot.

[@brok56]

​@@langbo9999 thats tuesday in NK.

[@crackersphdinwumbology2831]

I was stationed in South Korea for two years. I never once saw a child, or a baby. I saw one teenager. Korea is cooked

[@johnaeryns5364]

Is it low fertility, or low birth rate? Because one can be dealt with, the other can not.

[@ss-ds2dn]

Yeah the conflation of those terms is annoying

[@SaberKittyZero]

I'm reminded of the rat utopia experiment when I see modern issues.

[@tulipalll]

This is a problem all across asia and europe. Every developed and developing country is struggling

[@bigorna4875]

All across the world*

[@mekingtiger9095]

Except for Kazakhstan, for some very weird reason.

[@Alaryk111]

to an extent but the big reason for that is lack of apprioprate pro natalist policies. France has fertility rate of around 1.85 which is too low it should be 2.1 of course but they have more or less slable fertility rate since 70'(sometimes diping to 1.7 sometthing rising to over 2 )

[@tulipalll]

​@@mekingtiger9095also Afghanistan and sub Saharan Africa. None of these countries are heavily industrialized or even particularly competent at existing. So essentially every country that means anything on earth is dying.

[@mekingtiger9095]

@@tulipalll These countries you just mentioned are also decreasing their fertility rates over time. Kazakhstan and most of Central Asia on the other hand have managed to pull off the feat of *increasing it* over time from an initial start of being below replacement levels. Now they're above 3.0 CPM!

[@2SSSR2]

I posted this some time ago but South Korea issue is world issue as well. Will Governments at some point start doing extreme measures in order to preserve their economies and nations? Leave the individual rights aside for the sake of economic and national survival?

[@thereseemstobeenanerror1219]

If the situation truly does grow the such a desperate extreme. I imagine governments will start to view people's rights as optional rather than mandatory.

[@prestonjones1653]

I mean, it worked for China and the USSR.

[@stoyanb.1668]

It really hasnt.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

@@thereseemstobeenanerror1219 ​ @echoecho3155 "the only concern is " PLEASE stop spouting mindless generalities. INDIVIDUALS have concerns. An INDIVIDUAL, such as a corporate executive, is concerned only with "moving the machine of capital", for example. We need to BLAST through the entire populations' skulls that every desire every want, regardless of how fair or unfair, or for whose benefit, is an INDIVIDUAL desire/want. There is NOTHING sacred NOTHING ABSOLUTE about ANY individual desire or want.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

​@@thereseemstobeenanerror1219 Governments are just collections of individual. What some corporate executive wants is just still THAT INDIVIDUAL'S desires. If government can pander to CEO's rights and freedoms, then they can certainly be forced to pander to everyone else's.

[@m.campbell3405]

The US bases will be the only people there. That would be surreal.

[@Nonamearisto]

Turns out that being underpaid irreligious workaholics to gain competitiveness is a really bad strategy for giving people money, motivation, and time to raise families.

[@gf-nw6no]

and an abundance of feel good inc. to replace genuine happyness with short term emotional satisfaction

[@10secondsrule]

Don’t mix bs religion int this.

[@vincentfox4929]

​@@10secondsruleIt is a statistically relevant fact that religious people will on average have more children than the irreligious.

[@Nonamearisto]

@@10secondsrule Religious people usually have more children. That's all.

[@prestonjones1653]

Who would have thought the Taliban had the right idea?

[@deprived1658]

Absolutely love how in depth your videos are! Awesome job as always!

[@historyofeverythingpodcast]

Thank you, context takes a LONG time to establish

[@Pan_Z]

North Korea played the long game. It will unify the peninsula once the Southern half is completely vacant.

[@dewaldt8104]

North Korea is also facing a birth rate collapse.

[@Pan_Z]

@dewaldt8104 Keeping falling for the deception, Western dog.

[@proudfirebrand3946]

@@Pan_Z

[@Pan_Z]

@@proudfirebrand3946 It was a joke. Who unironically praises North Korea? Regardless, sadly KZbin didn't see it as a joke and wiped the comment.

[@mekingtiger9095]

​@@dewaldt8104 Not nearly to the same degree.

[@swordsman1_messer]

Yup. Moon Channel has made a two-part video on the Gender War in South Korea, and it touched on a lot of the economic issues that basically prevent people from having relationships, let alone families. TL:DR the Chapoks suck.

[@Demopans5990]

Especially when one controls 20% of the economy, and all 5 of them control 80%

[@jameshouchin5689]

This is a problem for the entire developed world. Each European country has this problem, Japan has this issue, even China is showing signs of this problem. The only reason the U.S. doesn’t have this issue is emigration.

[@prestonjones1653]

Immigration* Emigration means leaving.

[@jameshouchin5689]

My apologies, even though English is my first language I still have issues with the written word. But the point still stands, all the peoples from other countries in search of the American Dream is why we don’t have the manpower shortage of other developed countries.

[@sleefy2343]

China? You mean Shanghai and Beijing 😂 that doesn’t represent the whole China

[@ryanelliott71698]

Having some of these issues is bad, but SK just seemed to roll a 1 on dice. Unless the government is willing to make both economic and social change they’ll be just pissing in the wind

[@MariaRodriguez-dx6sm]

"Guys being dudes" is a very polite way to say that teen boys and young men in their early 20's have the tendency to make very... unwise decisions that would get them out of the genetic pool.

[@cylemorton2131]

That's actually insane. I'll probably watch this in more detail again but this sheer concept is insane. They'll be welcoming tourists to stay in the decades to come at their current rate

[@akg_table]

32:35 So part of the issue is indeed feminism. Women are getting all the rights they should, traditions are changing to be more even for women. But men are still held to the old standards. They must still bring more to the table than women, the same women who the government ensured is now on the same level as men. gg, same shit in the US but not as bad.

[@Reformed322]

It’s the history, modern culture (a large number of issues), and the most expensive country to live in. Heck, Koreans call other Koreans rice eaters as a pejorative for being poor. A lot of them also deem other easy-Asians from other east-Asian countries as inferior.

[@sookendestroy1]

Name a country in east asia that doesnt consider other east asian countries inferior, challenge level impossible

[@Reformed322]

@@sookendestroy1 also correct statement

[@Demopans5990]

@@Reformed322 South Korean students complain about Chinese students taking one piece of meat too many, into a very sad looking bowl by American standards

[@10secondsrule]

@@Demopans5990still… much healthier food than American

[@beans11138]

fr? as a south korean I've never heard of a 'rice eater' before.

[@enemyofYTemployees]

16:16 Pension funds should not be a Ponzi scheme… isn’t that the real lesson here? Big government people will never get this through their thick skulls.

[@jacksonthompson7099]

Fun fact, a new series has started about the Korean war and will be covering the Korean war week by week as it happened in history until it is concluded so yay another multi year project by this crew. Channel is called "The Korean War by Indy Neidell"

[@박승현-n7e]

The problem is the culture, so no matter how much money the government puts, it will go to waste. So Korea and Asia will dissappear until they either change the culture into a radical extreme degree that makes the population rise again or just get rid of the culture entirely and start taking reforms. But it will never happen. But hey, at least there are Koreans and Asian around the world, so even if their land is empty in other countries, there are gonna be more Asians in foreign countries.

[@mekingtiger9095]

I heard Japan is adopting reforms to its work environment due to the lack of available manpower in the job market. Basically reducing working hours while comoanies are prociding more amenities to workers as labor becomes more scarce and thus more expensive. It's been a slow and recent trend, though. So results might be a little slow to show up.

[@heiskanbuscadordelaverdad8709]

If South Korea wants to survive it needs a ton of radical reforms, to solve every problem in society in a decade, which is impossible with a conservative government, you would need radical progressive government, just to have a chance at survival

[@노력하자-r1z]

TRUE

[@MK_ULTRA420]

"you would need radical progressive government, just to have a chance at survival" If anything this would speedrun their population collapse when LGBTQ+ and OF are normalized over there.

[@gslogar1]

I think you miss two countries which in the same boat, China and Russia. China’s birth rate is near or below 1.0 which mean it’s population will by 2050 near 700 million and it may actually get worse with economic crisis. Russia already had great reduced its birth day. Now with a war with Ukraine, Russia is massively killing off it youth or they are leaving Russia never to return. These countries are on the road on disaster.

[@hydronpowers9014]

It's very impressive they managed to created two dystopias side by side on the same peninsula

[@robertduluth8994]

They were about to vote to be communist but uncle sam doesn’t like democracy to they invaded.

[@petravieira2363]

Some of these comments by men is the reason the B4 movement started in Korea. Yes, economic factors are very important, but when woman are treated like second class citizens, violence against woman is high, and the police and justice system doesn't care, no matter how economic things get better, it's not gonna fix anything. Not even talking how mental health is such a taboo and stigma.

[@ThermicLight]

Yes one would have that opinion when they ONLY care about the wmn and NEVER care or contrast about men. Even in the west wmn literally have more rights and privileges than men and they still carrying on about being second class citizens.

[@ss-ds2dn]

Yup.

[@BlameCo]

The spirit of halloween bit had me

[@ZalrokChaos1]

Something where the government has seen the numbers on self-end rates and knows why that's happening, and not doing anything to stop that is wild.

[@cynthiaherbst3909]

That particular point also floored me. I wonder if this isn't playing a factor at least in the post COVID period of why they seem so much more foreigner friendly and accommodating...incentive for immigration...and he literally said it 🤔

[@10secondsrule]

@@cynthiaherbst3909if you don’t speak Korean or have experience in Korea you will never get a job so good luck with that. It’s one of the least foreigner friendly countries I’ve ever lived in.

[@Vic_Trip]

It's simple: they don't care long term. The excuse being "we've been through worse, just cope with it" instead of at least trying to make things better by changing. Asian countries that follow Confusionist ideals have a "bend over backwards to the system" mentality instead of a logical, hellenic philosophy that the west adopts. People are just parts of the system and everyone must do their part for the sake of having the system works. Which is why these countries have had Emperor systems for the longest time.

[@jgr7487]

"Guys being dudes." There's an old series of memes about it! Just search "why women live longer than men meme".

[@kratosboy5557]

I’m guessing the Mentally Challanged are treated like actual Subhumans

[@moneyobsessed]

thats asia for you

[@drsteiner12]

As a South Korean, unfortunately I’m part of the problem, I’m nearing past my prime age, with no marriage or kids in sight. Fortunately my 4 cousins are all married with 3+ kids, so they’re the true patriots of the country. I do have to disagree on the argument of the country disappearing, though. As overpopulation happened just be a hypothetical problem, I’m guessing for the opposite, as our population declines, things will balance out. At least I hope so, for the sake of my nation.

[@imperfectcell7081]

Hello!Are you pro-unification with the North?

[@mekingtiger9095]

I admire your optimism for the future, my friend. I truly do.

[@herbayum76]

I would advice you a prepclass for demography

[@OR56]

I have an idea. Announce that is you have a child within the next year, you won’t have to pay any income taxes. Of course, other kinds of taxes would rise slightly, but that would definitely get people to have kids

[@10secondsrule]

Tax is low in Korea anyway. Just as are salaries. You can throw money at society but when they have no time it will not do anything. Have you actually watched this video?

[@OR56]

@@10secondsrule I haven't finshed it yet. I listen to his videos while im doing chores, and I haven't finished it yet. I made this comment a few minutes in.

[@pieceofschmidtgamer]

For all those worried about declining birth rates... I mean, it's a serious problem, but it's actually a self-correcting problem. The birthrate is declining yes, but once the conditions for that decline are no longer met, the birthrate will recover. So you're not going to see Koreans cease to exist as a people nor South Korea cease to exist as a country, but you will see a significant population decline from just under 52 million to probably somewhere close to 30 million (probably closer to 35 million). This decline will most likely force a change in South Korea's culture to be less soul crushing because the actual real value (not the artificial value) of labor will go up, forcing companies to treat their employees better or risk them going elsewhere.

[@hs5312]

It remains to be seen but I have had the same theory that super low rates would reverse after a while

[@pieceofschmidtgamer]

@@hs5312 "Remains to be seen." History bares out that when a problem arises it is due to a cause and once the cause goes away so too does the problem. There's no "remains to be seen" about it.

[@Demopans5990]

There is precedent. The Black Death did wipe out ~30% of the European population, though it did take another 50 or so years before peasants would gain enough rights and privileges. The next half century is going to be very painful for all economies as none of them even considers population decline as a possible factor

[@pieceofschmidtgamer]

@@Demopans5990 Never said it would happen over night, but it should be noted that history moves pretty damn fast in the modern era.

[@lowfpsman]

lol nowdays most of the time family need 2 working parents. Greed is literraly killing humanity XD. if 1 working parent could support family and be able to buy a home at some point, then birth rates will be ok.

[@alastor8091]

Families only need 2 working parents because women drove down the wages by entering the workforce. Take away the extra workers and now ypu have to pay more because there are fewer of them, and they'll demand more money to tale care of their families. We already solved this problem, or rather, it was a problem we didnt have, because we weren't stupid enough to cause it.

[@ThermicLight]

It's really not so much about the money because even the middle class who have enough still opt out of kids.

[@solarissv777]

In many places 1 working parent was never enough to support a family. It's an American thing.

[@Falling_Doc]

only americans in the steel belt after ww2 could do that, the rest of the world even the kids had to work to support the family, everyone in my grandma went to work in factory, even her mother who would take her to the facotry and work side by side

[@doppelkammertoaster]

It seems to me, that South Korea is a warning to everyone promoting unregulated markets and influence of corporations in government. I don't believe this is changing, because it hasn't hurt the big companies in South Korea yet, which are effectively making policy. Also, they would need to question and heavily change their views on education and its tie to the worth of a person. Throwing money at that will not help, as long as having a high income and education are so crucial.

[@mekingtiger9095]

Japan's companies are apparently staring to feel the effects of this as they are adopting some changes in their work environment to accomodate workers with more amenities since labor is already becoming scarce (and thus expensive) there. And the Japanese government is also starting to pass a few reforms limiting their working hours too. But it seems like these changes are happening slowly and only recently.

[@RamblingOverHillsAndDowns]

When you say the 'true fertility rate', do you mean the TFR or 'Total Fertility Rate'? I have not seen any demographic data referred to as the 'true fertility rate' and cannot find reference to it online in a cursory search.

[@claudeyaz]

It's crazy how both nations became dystopias

[@mariobosnjak99]

Population when nation invests in short term gains and allows quality of life to fall/stagnate and price of living to rise exponentially and infinitely:

[@Jefrings]

Can we also talk about that not everyone wants to be in a relationship and have kids? It's not always about free time and money... Let people live their own lives and stop treating them like livestock!

[@carlw5360]

This video clearly isnt about them. This video is specifically talking about the issues and roadblocks for people who do want to have kids but the current state of society makes it undesirable. The country could have a sustainable birthrate without forcing people to be livestock.

[@ggbpartystarter5958]

Damn, weird North Koreean victory then.

[@GreyGhoul420]

Well that was...genuinely depressing...

[@mariannehill9495]

I think another point worth talking about is the 4b movement where women in South Korea are choosing to remain single because the male population in korea is know for horrific crimes and action unto the women and they are boycotting relationships

[@Scion141]

Gender wars contribute very little to South Korea's current state of affairs, I can see why it's not even mentioned here. Most Koreans are in relationships and want to get married, but don't because of financial issues. Some even get married but choose not to have children, because "money".

[@mekingtiger9095]

​@@Scion141 Also time. Time is another BIG issue. Though it is kind of correlated with the money issue anyway, so yeah.

[@darthJ9]

They Thanos-snapped themselves

[@buzzular8198]

Hey, i love your content, and i have a video idea, as a canadian, my country is going down and quick due to corporate immigration, young people cant get jobs because foreigners work for cheap (in this case indians mostly) and on top of that everything is overly taxed. We recently had a protest about it on canada day, and people are starting to become polarized as well as purely hateful of the institutes allowing this over migration of immigrants (nearly 500,000 a year.) Its a great topic.

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

What! A government overreaction caused long term issues they are now unable to solve? Colour me surprised.

[@hungo7720]

The measly birth rate of 0.72? This is ludicrous as such underwhelmingly low birth rate poses ominous threats to South Korea's national security and economic outlook. Sadly, this trend seems irreversible.

[@darthmorgoththesecond9990]

And this also happing in North Korea too ; If those two combine and we know both governments are fucked in both countries, cultural can save it

[@puddingpoppalpatine-6070]

I would normally watch this but this is far too depressing. It's strange that it always feels different watching harsh situations when it is your people going through it. I wonder why that is.

[@prestonjones1653]

Because when it's somebody else's country, it's somebody else's problem. When it's YOUR country, then it's your problem.

[@puddingpoppalpatine-6070]

@@prestonjones1653 I was born outside Korea. I don't hate my motherland, on the contrary I'm proud of my heritage, but I never really had much interaction with the culture or it's people. You'd think I would have some level of detachment but hearing about it's trouble deeply disturbs me.

[@secretalt1265]

Thats because you have a culture to be proud of, unlike many others.​@puddingpoppalpatine-6070

[@Cwxi_BS]

So glad you keep covering this because it is a very big problem that people should know about

[@thishandleistaken1011]

But white countries with even lower replacement rates aren't a problem.

[@kyledabearsfan]

This is happening globally, at least throughout the western and Asian worlds. Wild thought. Insane the degree that South Korea is dealing with though.

[@iainawatson]

There are many, many lenses you can use to describe this phenomenon, one is that if left to their own devices, the chaebols will squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until everyone is dead.

[@evilsworn2901]

Congrats to South Korea for breaking a new world record 🥳🥳

[@darthmorgoththesecond9990]

Interesting idea if Japan controlled North and South Korea

[@theblackgods4699]

This is terrible .if theres no south koreans whos gonna work for samsung😢 .lets send our prayers to samsung's turnover i can't umagune what the ceo is going through .how xan south koreans do this without think of samsung 😢

[@Un_Pour_Tous]

Fan boi is unhinged lol

[@BjrnFriedrichsen]

1.58 is also shrinking and dissapearing, just somewhat slower.