Comment by jdw64 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jdw64 | Hacker News Reader

As a Korean, the reason people rush into stocks is simple: labor value has been completely destroyed.

Realistically, it's nearly impossible for high income young people in their 20s and 30s to buy a house in Seoul. That forces them to move to the provinces, but then there's almost no infrastructure. No companies either.

So many people turn to leverage in hopes of a life changing reversal.

The recent rise in the KOSPI index happened because some of the loopholes that Korean conglomerates used to make inheritance easier were blocked by revisions to the Commercial Act. One of the uncertainties that had been called 'Korean risk' was removed, and the market went up.

For a Korean man, the moment you leave Seoul, not just the outskirts, but out of Seoul entirely, there's no one to talk to about IT jobs. I live outside Seoul, and the infrastructure gap is about 10 to 20 years behind. On top of that, there are no IT companies, just mostly low income manual labor jobs.

The median monthly income for Korean men is about 3 million KRW, while the average Seoul apartment price is 1.3 billion KRW and the median price is 997 million KRW. That means you'd need to work for about 25~30 years just to buy a home, but job tenure is getting shorter, so that's not realistic.

So people gamble on leverage, hoping for a life changing win. Everyone around me knows it's gambling, but they figure they're already in a dead end situation anyway, so they have nothing to lose.

I live and work in IT outside Seoul, but the IT business has already matured, and there are many well established companies. The Korean market itself is small, so early movers have already taken the lead. There's no room for latecomers like me. That's why I take on work from the West, China, and Japan regardless, but even that's hard without a reputation.

The moment you leave Seoul, a Korean's chances of success drop to nearly zero. That's why people cling to the city so desperately.

And honestly, I've hardly gambled on my life. But I'm drowning in debt, and sometimes I feel like a fool for working so hard.

> I live outside Seoul, and the infrastructure gap is about 10 to 20 years behind

That actually sounds like a business opportunity, if there is a steady stream of people moving out if Seoul.

> On top of that, there are no IT companies

Why don't Korean companies embrace WFH? Again sounds like a huge competitive advantage on the job market

> That actually sounds like a business opportunity, if there is a steady stream of people moving out if Seoul.

They aren't. That's why those areas are falling behind.

To be precise, it's because of Korea's corporate structure. Korea operates in a way that favors large conglomerates. Since the media is also owned by corporations, it tends to protect corporate interests rather than amplify citizens' voices.

The core problem with 'sacrificing one region to save another' is that you need a market to consume what you're saving. But there is no market to consume it. Most regions are organized around subcontractors for specific large conglomerates.

The typical structure is: large conglomerate (prime contractor) -> powerful local subcontractor -> sub->subcontractor. Often, the powerful local subcontractors are companies founded by former executives from the prime contractor.

In other words, it's a subcontractor-of-subcontractor structure—and the state doesn't block it; it actually encourages it. To survive, independent developers have to work as sub-subcontractors. Because starting a business requires capital.

I've worked across a wide range of fields: finance, drones, factory machinery, tax SaaS, and more. I've worked in over 20 domains. Why? Because while developers are scarce in regional areas and needed, when project budgets shrink, developer labor costs are the first to be cut. Since there's no other work, developers accept poor conditions. And once you get on the wrong side of a powerful local company, finding the next job becomes difficult.

Most independent developers can't succeed unless they can handle this wide range of domains.

Suppose you make an app that 1 in 10,000 people use. In the US, with 340 million people, that's 34,000 users. Add in the English-speaking world, and the potential user base is even larger. And since the global UI/UX standards are based on US standards, it's easier for apps to scale globally.

But if you release an app in Korean, and 1 in 10,000 people use it, that's only about 5,000 users out of 50 million. The scale gap is enormous.

That's why Korea has concentrated everything into one region to maintain global competitiveness. This is the side effect.

But I think this is becoming a global problem. Just as the fertility crisis isn't unique to Korea, Korea is just a more visible case because its landmass is small. I'm convinced that all countries will eventually go through similar pains

Can people live cheaply in the outskirts and work remotely for a foreign company? Or would that still not get you on track to be able to buy in/near Seoul?

English(lang) is the problem.

Korean and English have very different grammatical structures. I can read English in real time, but writing, listening, and speaking are difficult. (Maybe it'd be different if I were more proficient, but I've never lived abroad, so that's how it is.)

Because of that, remote work usually requires speaking, so most interviews end in rejection. I can communicate through chat, but the vast majority of employers want interviews.

And as the IT industry has grown and become more established, Korea has developed its own standards that diverge from global norms. This makes Korean IT hard to sell globally. I try to follow global standards, but in Korea, I'm told I'm using 'wrong technology' or doing 'over-engineering.'

Either way, the technology you learn or implement is often quite different—because the market leaders set the technical standards.

So independent developers in Korea have to learn both Korean IT standards and global standards—on top of English. (This is extremely painful.)

So if I could do remote work for a foreign company, it would be really, really great. But in reality, English is usually where things fall apart. Koreans often praise Korean as a 'scientific' language, but for most Koreans, it actually acts as a shackle. On the other hand, it's also because of this language that the domestic market is able to maintain at least a minimum level of viability.

It could work, but those types of jobs (paying significantly more than local salary and yet fully remote in a different time zone) are few and not easy to get nowadays (not that they were ubiquitous before).

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