No better way to motivate young people to start a family, than to force them to work even more. Yes, I know this said "managers" - but let's be real, if your manager works 6 days a week, so are probably you too, in a country with work culture like SK.
> The number of young Koreans who opted out of the job market in May was recorded at about 400,000, the highest since 2020. Despite the government's measures announced last year to integrate this group into the labor market, their number increased again after nine months as the number of full-time jobs decreased.
> However, experts believe that such policies have their limitations if there aren't enough quality jobs for the 15-29 age group.
> "The impact of high interest rates and reduced investment following the pandemic has led to a decrease in quality jobs desired by young people," Kim Gwang-suk, head of research at the Institute for Korean Economy & Industry, said. "This situation has resulted in a decline in regular employment and a loss of job-seeking motivation among young people."
If you are older, you are likely trapped in your job and must do. If you are younger, you are likely not, and can opt out. Based on trajectories, what do we think will happen to more young folks who age into working age? Grind? Or opt out? Consider how this impacts total fertility rate, at a time when South Korea has set a record for lowest in the world.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-fert...
> South Korea's fertility rate, already the world's lowest, continued its dramatic decline in 2023, as women concerned about their career advancement and the financial cost of raising children decided to delay childbirth or to not have babies.
> The average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to a record low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022, data from Statistics Korea showed on Wednesday.
I feel like the endgame of our "line goes up for the wealthy" system is - people abandoning making other humans.
The amount of pressure on 20s/30s people is immense. A 9-month pregnancy, maternity, and parenthood has become so risky from a job/earnings perspective for an individual. There is zero stability. Even hunter/gatherer societies created stability for their pregnant women and children.
On one hand, we can say this work ethic/culture enabled them to go from third world to first in less than a century. But stretch it too much and the country suffers population collapse.
I wonder if being bordered by a rabid enemy (North Korea) also plays a role in the low birth rates. Maybe people don’t want to give birth to kids that might end up fighting war in the long run.
The hunter or the gatherer was not abandoned from the tribe/laid off/thrown on a PIP during a pregnancy for not finding enough fruits for the tribe CEO.
While the absolute conditions of hunter gatherers were abysmal compared to modern western standards, they didn't suffer relative decline in the living conditions due to pregnancy and child rearing. Their tribe took care of their house, food, security and child rearing. In other words, they had a community.
Today with the nuclear family mindset, if you don't have parental benefits, you will be hard pressed to figure out your rent, food or insurance and you will see a relative decline in your lifestyle. Humans have big aversion to relative declines even if their absolute lifestyle would still be better than their hunter gatherer ancestors.
So yes, there might be zero stability if your intention is to be a single mother. But I've heard that application of this novel idea could be helpful with these concerns. Maybe Koreans could look into this incredible new technology?