It is public knowledge that the southern half of the Korean Peninsula has the world's lowest fertility rate, placed at 0.72 in 2023. In a society that worships economic growth and material success, mainstream media would of course publish alarmist headlines, such as "population in a freefall" or "attempts to boost the population fail." In Korea's case, the population rightsizing is because the Korean Peninsula in general is resource-scarce, too resource-poor to even entertain the "economic powerhouse" moniker. Cultural factors include unforgiving work hours, degenerately high expectations, soaring costs of basic services, not to mention generalized tensions between men and women. Also take note that South Korea has a serious suicide issue, which is a reflection of an society that is harsher than its surrounding environment.
It is odd that the first sector to fear Korea's population rightsizing are the higherups or the elites, practically parasites who, under the economic growth cult, leech on commoners to support their grandiose but callous and unrealistic aspirations. Population decline is good news for a country that has very few human-arable natural resources, as that means more resources available to each person. Population decline also means less strain on Korea's essential services. Rather than being paranoid of rightsizing, the higherups of Korean society should accept a little population adjustment towards more ecologically sustainable levels. The higherups should ultimately ditch the economic growth cult and instead introduce post-growth economic systems. Post-growth economics prioritizes the wellbeing of the people and of the natural world over the economic growth myth. Post-growth economic systems are immune to population declines, which could derail growth-based economic systems.
Comments
Post a Comment