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Comment by nxzero | Hacker News Reader

Is anyone in South Korea able to comment on why there's such a high sucide rate?

According two Wikipedia, it's ranked number #2 in the world and double the rate of sucide of America:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide...

One theory is Durkheim's suicide hypothesis: South Korea's industrial development has ripped apart the traditional society (already badly damaged by the country's partition and the Korean War), and social norms and society have not yet consolidated on new adaptive ways https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=durkheim+suicide+south+...

If so, we can hope that SK will gradually improve, especially if they can figure out how to corral the out-of-control signaling arms-race which is their educational system. (Although this also predicts bad news for China in the coming decades.)

This is interesting, to treat a high suicide rate as a symptom of some other problem, rather than the main problem in and of itself. I wish these fancy American social scientists were capable of taking a similar look at USA, but alas it's all beams and motes.

Try living in Korea for a year, and it will be obvious. Joking aside, it's just that for poor people, there are not many things that you can do really to get out of your financial situation. If you are not born in a rich family, then it's really easy to draw how your life is going to be. I think it's the hopelessness paired with extremely high working hours and very low wage that drives people to commit suicide. There are too many things to say to make it as a comment, but let me say this. Samsung, the multinational conglomerate is controlled by a single family, and the ownership has been inherited to their children for many generations. From outside of Korea, Samsung is just an electronics company. But, from the inside, it's a credit card company, a medical company, a hospital, a fashion company, food company, and the list goes on until you are out of your ideas. Samsung's revenue is roughly 20% of Korea GDP, and I am not sure if it accounts for all their branches and affiliates, and their family and relatives' businesses. Probably not. They are living above the law. https://www.engadget.com/2013/01/30/samsung-fined-over-gas-l... This is a rather extreme case, but $1000 fine to Samsung over a fatal incident. LMAO.

What the heck? Are there no antitrust laws or do they just not apply to Samsung?

One family-owned conglomerate controlling 20% of a nation's GDP and basically all industries belongs in some dystopian TV show, not real life….

Traditional way out of problems

Inability to talk through negative emotions with friends and family

In US easy availibity of guns helps.

Looked into it, appears the current surge of the sucides is related to poverty in elderly and the lack of support from family; appears the South Korea government successfully beginning to deal with the issue.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_South_Korea

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