Why Korea is Dying Out

Go to brilliant.org/nutshell/ to dive deeper into these topics and more with a free 30-day trial + 20% off for the first 200 people! This video was sponsored by Brilliant. Thanks a lot for the support!

Hot take: the reason why people have less children is not "because magically people stop having children when they stop dying", but that our lifestyle is incompatible with having children. When women were incorportated in the work force, work hours should have been reduced proportionally. We are working more for less, we don't even have time for ourselves, much less for taking care of our children, and most of the basics like home and health has been sequestred for a small portion of the population to live of a chunk of other people's work. Get down to 4 hours of work for both parents to make a living and you will see how suddenly people start having children, because what's needed to nurture children is spending time.

In Korea, if you use parental leave you are excluded from promotion. Doesn’t matter if you’re the father or the mother. No clue why people don’t have kids, right?

“The wolves are upset, the sheep won’t reproduce”

A while back I had the displeasure of listening to a senior citizen (who shall remain unnamed) complain about how young people these days are just so lazy. "By the time I was that age, i AlReAdY hAd A hOuSe." And I'm over here struggling not to blow up and tell them to get a fucking clue. The economy is NOT the same.

As a teenager, I always imagined that by age 30 I would've married, owned a house and had all the children I was going have. I turn 30 in 8 days. Haven't done any of those things. I've been with my partner for 7 & a half years. If it was up to us, we would've done all of it already, but neither of us see those things as achievable goals for our near future. Housing is way too expensive and wages are too low. Why have kids when we can't afford to feed them or house them? Much less have the time to raise them since we both work full time just to survive. And without all of that, marriage just seems so pointless... As much as we wish we could start a family, we have no incentive to do so

I am a father in America that was fired when I took a week off of work to nurse my wife post pregnancy. A real story to consider in your assumptions.

The scariest things in the world: -Horror Movies -Darkness -Kurzgesagt talking about a problem

EDIT: I'm sorry everyone, my information is completely outdated and no longer correct! If I remember correctly, S Korea's college entry exams only allows you a total of TWO TRIES before they write you off as hopeless and you're doomed to a life of low-income job(s), and they also have age restrictions as well. Which was why my dad left in his mid, late 20s to Hawaii, since the USA allows entry to college at any time, at any age, with near unlimited chances.

"Elected governments COULD decide to mostly represent the interests and fear of their elderly populations". Brother, that shit is happening already.

"Parenthood needs to stop being a career obstacle. Our cultures need to become more positive towards families." -- utterly utterly important message.

This video makes think that the traditions of community that we lost were more important than we realized.

The future seems kinda sad, hope things will work out. maybe after some years i can come back to this comment and reflect on it

The effect of an aging population is felt very strongly in Greece. For years our politicians have mostly catered to retirees and government employees and that's been enough to get them elected. But the burden of the system has been felt by the younger generation who, for the most part, have just left the country, leaving even fewer people to support the aging population. It's negative feedback loop at this point.

As a Korean, one of the main reason for rapid fall of birth rate is that the idea of "If we cannot make our children happy, then it is better to not give birth to them" has become so common among the young people in Korea. It is of course an obligation for parents to try their best for their children's happy juvenile life, but the thing is that typicaly Koreans have large focus on economic well-being as a prerequisite for happy life, which not many could attain the general standards for wealthy life.

Great Video! Would love to see more of these, love the topic and animation 😁👍

As a teenager I don't want to have kids because I feel like it's unfair to force someone to exist because there's really not much hope for the future and if the economy is this bad now then by the time I'm old enough to raise a kid (if i could afford one or wanted one) I can't imagine how much worse it would be, better to adopt if anything

Boomers: "Don't have kids if you can't afford them!" Younger generations: "ok!" Boomers: .... 😡

I think it's also important to note that people want to have kids, but housing and healthcare costs are so unbearable that it's literally impractical for them to have more than one. This rings true for most of Europe, as well as places like Hong Kong and Korea.

It sounds like the problem is there will be too many old people, not too few young people.