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Elderly set to exceed 30% by 2034
The population of South Korean nationals residing in the country has dropped below 50 million for the first time in six years, largely due to low birth rates.
Projections suggest that by 2042, this figure may not even reach 47 million.
According to data released by Statistics Korea on April 11, the population of South Korean nationals decreased from 50,021,000 in 2022 to 49,847,000 in 2023. After surpassing the 50 million mark in 2018 with a population of 50,024,000, the figure had remained in the 50 million range for five years before dropping to the 40 million range last year.
Let’s hope they can find a way to smoothly transition to a non-growth economy. The planet needs to downsize and someone needs to show the way.
The biggest problem, imo, is the fucking Chebols. I love my Samsung phone but that company is 22.4% of the South Korean economy, that’s fucking bonkers. The Chebols can dictate economic and social policies and ROK really just needs to break those fuckers up. It’ll be painful, it’ll cause a recession… but much like the famous Prussia quote “Korea is a corporation with a nation.”
I’ve worked extensively in SK marketing and analytics before, and for whatever reason Koreans by and large have accepted chaebols. most do not want them gone.
we used to have a saying at work that SK took all the worst parts of American capitalism and ran with it. the society is heavily encouraged to look up to chaebols as examples of success. Korea’s marketing heavily emphasizes materialism in an on the nose way. societal elitism in Korea is part of their culture and they make it known they’re better than you if they’re in a higher social position than you.
you can see the chaebol dream if you’ve ever consumed any Korean media before. the trope of meeting a random person who ends up being a down to earth chaebol is one of the most typical, overplayed story lines in kdramas ever. and even before that, the trope of running into a random person who ends up being some down to earth prince trying to escape royalty was super common. more people fantasize about that kind of stuff there than despise it.
all this to say the chaebols almost aren’t the problem. they’re practically a symptoms of a society who glamorizes them. it feels like how the US felt about the rich in the early 2000s.
On the other hand, because they’re so big they could push changes through the government that would normally take a long time in normal political process. Of course, first they must realize there is a problem and admit to themselves fundamental changes are needed that go against traditions.
Those changes they push through are not likely to be good for workers and the general public. They push them through because they help their own profit. Them being able to do that fast is actually a negative.
This is the classic pro/con argument about authoritarianism. Dictators suck but they’re extremely effective. Democracies move slower but embrace the desires of their citizens [1].
Are the Chebols desires aligned with the needs of the citizens? Well, they effectively run the country now and it’s fucking dystopic so I feel confident saying we should get them out.
Dictators are generally terribly ineffective. Read the Dictator’s Handbook.
I know it’s pretty close to asking the scorpion to save the frog but they’re halfway down the river by now and we’ll see very soon what their nature is.
In any case, it’ll be a nice model for USA and EU of what their future will look like.