Policy makers: “Why won’t they have babies?!? We need more babies the whole system will collapse! We must urgently do something! But what? What ever should we do??? We’ve tried EVERYTHING! We even give them straight cash if they have a kid! This is the greatest mystery of our time!”
The population in nearly perfect unanimous voice: “Work life balance is shit and we can’t afford to have kids, neither time wise nor monetarily”
Policy makers: “Such an enigma, truly so mysterious, woe is us, evil evil selfish young people that don’t have kids!”
…
korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It’s not worth to bring a soul to experience this misery we can hardly endure.
Highest among prosperous nations sure, but if we look to the whole world Korea does not have close to the highest rates of suicide.
Policy makers: … come on! … we need your children to replace you and your slave wages to keep our investors wealthy.
Keep on making it economically unfeasible…
Meh. After 10 years I finally got married to my partner. Not because we ever planned to or cared, but because older family wanted to put money in for it. So as far as we were concerned, we had an awesome party with a brief annoying document signing in it. Would’ve rather we got to use the money on something that actually mattered though.
I don’t even remember what date the wedding anniversary is. Some time in October. March 6 is the real anniversary of our first date and that’s the only one we care about.
Except that lower-income people have more children, both globally and within South Korea.
This may be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that birthrate is declining due to unaffordability.
Fewer
It’s a comparison, what’s wrong with less
“Less” is usually for non-countable objects, while “fewer” is for countable.
“Less slime” vs. “Fewer bees”
The comparison in this case is operating on the word half, not on the subject of the sentence:
Only half want to get married, even less [than half] want kids.
It could actually go either way, based on the title:
Only half of South Koreans willing to marry; even less [than half] want kids
Or
Only half of South Koreans willing to marry; even fewer [South Koreans] want kids
I’m inclined to lean toward the second. “Even less than half” sounds a lot clunkier than “even fewer South Koreans,” so it’s not surprising other readers assumed the latter.
You’re definitely right!
TIL. Mildly interesting. Now I know fewer less knowledge.
I wish the article explained why people were against getting married? Like, kids, as a father, I get it.
But for marriage, is it just seen as an unnecessary formality? Is it about an aversion to long term relationships? Is there a cultural perception that you must have kids if you get married and people want to avoid a married-no-children stigma?
I believe it’s a situation where the men tend to want traditional stay-at-home wives to raise their kids, but the women either want to work, or the men don’t make enough to support a stay-at-home wife and raise a kid on their single income (because it can be really expensive relative to wages).
I’ve read that there’s a lot of… misogyny/anti-feminism movement stuff going on in Korea these days.
There’s an absolute ton of anti-feminism, to the point where companies actively fire feminists if there’s a stink raised and make statements that the company doesn’t share feminist views. Yes, it’s that fucked.
Not south korean but for me marriage just seems weird. Why should the government be involved at all in my relationship? Why would I do a bunch of paperwork and pay money to get a document that offers very few benefits and could one day become a pain in the ass if my partner and I grow apart for some reason?
If a partner cares about marriage there is nothing keeping me from swapping rings with them and doing a ceremony but I see no reason to get the government involved.
Doesn’t it give certain benefits? In the Netherlands there is some tax benefit, custody for the children is easier to arange (both in divorce and if a mother dies before the children are 18) and a bunch of other stuff.
While I am mostly on the fence, not being officially married makes it pretty easy to separate. When you have no children, that is a good thing. With children, having some obstacles to someone running out on a whim is maybe warranted. An official marriage is a better indication you won’t do this if things get hard.
That being said, there are a lot of marriages and situations where getting out is far better. Both for the children and for the couple.
The government is not really involved other than some tax components in most countries. All the government has done is provided a legal option or contract you could say. They are not really in your life but going this route.
Marriage in Korea is a much “heavier” prospect in regards to expectations of mutual support and combining resources, as well as purchasing a house and stuff.
If you’re not planning on doing any of that there’s no reason to get married, even if you’re not planning on dating anyone else but your current partner.
Plus just dating in Korea is hard. I know multiple people who only see their significant other maybe once every few months. Dating and married
I’m not Korean. Can someone list a single benefit to being married in this modern age that isnt just a counter to a cultural or legal failing? ie: being allowed to visit your s/o in the hospital.
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