Why Korea is Dying Out

To pass on what I’ve heard from many young people: if you would like them to consider children, pay them a fair and living wage, with actual job stability, allow for family leave from work, and provide accessible and non-budget-busting healthcare. That’s it. That’s the floor of solidity upon which to build a family (another floor is full community support, but that’s not all too common anymore). The erosion of wages and job security (especially starting in the 80s), coupled with healthcare issues and existential threats, has made having children so fraught that many are, logically, opting out. Tut tutting them while you pilfer their paycheques won’t make it better.

I feel like this video doesn’t address the underlying issue with birth rates: The cost of healthcare, the cost of taking care of a child, and the absolutely crushing lack of opportunity and uncertainty of the future, loss of faith in the society you’re growing up in, and a lack of societal stability giving you confidence to procreate and ensure a stable springboard for your progeny. People have kids when they have hope, and that’s at a critically low supply right now

As a student who is facing the CSAT (Korean college entrance exam) literally 6 weeks later, one of the main factors affecting the drastic birth rate in Korea is the overcompetition for higher education which stresses both parents and students immensly throughout the upbringing of children. Due to Korea’s historical Confucianistic values and the unique context of the steep economic growth post-korean war period, Korea’s society places immense societal importance and value on one’s educational background, and this creates an education system which mostly focuses around getting students to excel in the csat through their 12 years of school life. This in result creates a growing private education sector worth more than 20 billion dollars, students lifestyle being turned into a repetitive cycle comprised only of only school, tuition centres/academy and sleep, creating the highest youth suicide rates among OECD nations and lowest happiness levels. In my own case, our family used to spend more than $1500 monthly on private education for me and my brother, a sum thats about 20% of our montly income (which is probably somewhere in the upper middle class region) and this is considered to be not much compared to the Daechi Kids (Daechi being an area in Seoul, considered to be the private education centre of Korea), whose parents spend thousands of dollars for their children to try and get a good score in the csat so that they can go to medical schools. This really creates a never ending cycle of stress, with students being suicidal and parents having to cope with the ever increasing education fees, which in return places even more importance in having to get into college to fulfill society’s expectations and to overcome the increasing competition. This cycle affects all sorts of things like employment, housing prices and etc, and really creates an atmosphere where one feels unprepared to have children unless they have the economic background to support their children in winning the competition. In my own opinion, I really wouldn’t want to have children in Korea as I would feel as if having wronged them by making them grow up in a reality that probably is going to be even more stressful than my past 12 years of school.

Literally the case in many countries is the lack of affordability. Here in the US housing is expensive. Many young people are still living with their parents or are opting to renting an apartment. Healthcare is a joke. One visit to the hospital/ER can financially bankrupt you. Many women/mothers don’t receive substantial benefits such as lengthy maternity leaves. Access to daycare services is expensive. Food is getting more expensive. Higher education is expensive. The idea of having a single child right now sounds like a nightmare.