If you want to transform how you make presentations, check out gamma.app/ today - the AI-powered tool that makes beautiful slide decks in minutes, without all the hassle!
Neither positive or negative,korea will suffer heavily at least more than japan since its fertility rate has gone below 0.7.As a person who guessed this situation at 2020korean election(because the overwhelmingly won political party did nothing),I wonder why this topic boom nowdays(laughing sarcastically)
I don't know, man. I'm still convinced my Dutch East Indies stock is just experiencing a temporary dip. In the meantime, would you like to buy some exquisite tulip bulbs?
@@merovekh Why sure! Certainly the simple tulip bulb could never cause trouble, or affect our strong Dutch economy in any way. How much for a bulb? Will 50 florins suffice?
The too big to fail means that it will impact the economy of the entire country if the company fails, it does not literally mean that the company is immortal
@@Deep_Side_Sleep Uh..yes? I am indeed aware that it does not literally mean immortal...why would someone even think that? Regardless, it doesn't change my comment at all.
It most certainly doesn’t help when your worth in a country is based on going to a certain university or working for one of the three biggest companies in said country or when everything is basically in one mega city or when the working environment is basically designed to make you as busy as possible to the point where having kids is incredibly unreasonable. Wait i just described basically most of East Asia
Not US. I'm an East Asian student who immigrated here. US study and work culture is nothing like east Asia, and it's mostly a good thing, as the quality of life is much better, no crazy studying and work unbalanced life style.
@@MGZetta every big company in china has state participation, essentially they’re are all owned by the government. Government is only transferring his assets from partially owned to fully (Indirectly by state banks) owned.
Samsung isn't the only 'big" company in Korea. Korea is a developed country, because there are hundreds of companies. Just last year, small private cosmetic companies made billions in export. And all companies in the US are protected by the government. Look at the amount of tax that they bring into a country. Also, the amount of income that they create. Many international companies are subsidized by the local government as well.
Lots of young people here in Korea are moving away from jobs in these conglomerates and getting into blue collar jobs becoming disillusioned with the hyper competitive rat race. So Korea is trying to attract foreign workers by offering scholarships to their universities but the process to get a long term visa is still ridiculously difficult .
Do you think this could be good for the birth rate? I heard that a big reason for it beeing so low is the enormous competitive school system, which leaves no room for family
@@karlheinz4059 The birth rate (like most things) is a combination of factors. Indeed one of them is the hypercompetitive society, which burns people out, but the competitive school system means very high expenditures (not just for tuition, but extra curriculars, cram school and other tutoring) - children are therefore incredibly expensive burdens for a society that also has a cost of living crisis, like most of the developed world. The competitiveness also translates to interpersonal relationships - Korea is still highly patriarchal, women are expected to quit their jobs and stay home to do all of the childcare, and serve their husbands and his family, which leaves them with little support systems, independent finances and strongly isolated. Many (and closer to most now) today therefore choose celibacy, since it allows them to maintain their professional standing and financial independence. Koreans also acutely remember their own stress from their school years and increasingly consider that to be an unfit environment to subject their own potential children to. In short, life is too stressful, expensive and inequitable in Korea to bring a new generation into it just to subject that generation to the same. It is a perfect storm
@@karlheinz4059 The birth rate issue is a different ball game. There are a myriad of reasons for that and lets not forget that globally in developed countries, the birth rate is falling. Its just a tad accelerated in Korea.
I don't know what Korea you're talking about, but it's not the Korea I just moved back from this past July. Very few young people are willing even to live outside of Seoul, much less accept the intense of loss of social status that accompanies blue collar work in South Korea's similarly hypercompetitive social hierarchy.
No matter how much hard work the people of other countries do, they still can't earn money equal to Europeans. I am talking about the majority of the people of a country, not a single person (GDP per capita). The top 50 richest countries in GDP per capita are European countries or oil-rich countries. The real reason Europeans occupy all of North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, controlling almost 50% of the world's area and natural resources. Now, some will give examples of: - The Korean Economic Miracle, - The Japanese Economic Miracle, - And the Taiwan Economic Miracle. But in reality, no miracle happened. After World War II, Japan received $23 billion in aid, and Korea received $13 billion from America-these amounts are much higher in today’s value, though the exact numbers are unclear. Japan, Korea, and Taiwan became rich by becoming slaves of America (Europeans). These countries provided military bases to America and followed the same foreign policy as Europeans (for example, when the U.S. sanctioned Russia, Japan also sanctioned Russia). In exchange, America gave them prosperity through money, aid, technology transfer, factory setups, etc. For example, Taiwan is a small island country with a population of 10 million, but still, Taiwan is rich because of semiconductors. How did semiconductors come to Taiwan? Because of the USA. RCA (Radio Corporation of America) set up its semiconductor factory in Taiwan in: - 1966 (initially as a joint venture) - 1970 (as a wholly-owned subsidiary, RCA Taiwan Ltd.)
@@Atheist-hy6xq You gave a long explanation which shows Japan, Korea and Taiwan should be grateful to USA and should keep following their lead, and be away from China, which does not provide such advantages while exerting their dominance. Much clearer now. Thank you.
As usual, letting just a small handful of companies dominate the market will just lead to long term instability down the line. Here in the US, we learned this after the 30s and forgot it in the 80s, which is why things are getting so shaky now. Sadly, the same is true in Korea and other nations as well. Like any monoculture, letting only the big trees dominate while choking out the little trees just leads to an empty field when the big trees eventually fall.
Having big players is not the main issue. Bailing them out when they screw up and creating a regulatory environment that actually protects them is when issues occur. If these big companies are not competitive then other companies will take market share.
@@yt.damianthats not true. These big players have more than enough money and resources to destroy rivals even when they are extremely uncompetitive and bad, which is what anti monopoly laws were created to stop.
@@bornstar481 more regulation hinders new entrants far more than it does the incumbents who have the resources. there is no example you can show of a monopoly being broken up while it was at the height of its market dominance. every time it has happened newer players were already reducing the incumbents market share with new or better or cheaper alternatives. it does create more bureaucrats and lets the government pat itself on the back though.
This video doesn't cover it, but the bigger issue than corporate debt is household debt. With rising real estate prices and subsequent speculation, the household debt ratio is higher than in any other country. (Though it's not statistically ranked first, that's because South Korea's debt measurement excludes lease deposit costs.) The government is currently working hard to control the situation, but if real estate prices stop rising, it will lead to a very difficult situation.
Hard to prop up real estate when your population is tapering off and about to start declining. China is the most extreme example of this, even more so than SK I think.
Well South Korea ate Japans lunch, then China did the same to them. Thats how the global economy works. Even China is slowing down, losing manufacturing business to Vietnam and Mexico. You cant be the top dog forever. Thats why innovation in technology is crucial. Taiwan hit the jackpot with its chip industry. South Korea is just another country in the world offering the same goods to everyone that can be obtained in other countries for cheaper. Their innovation has stagnated.
@@badcgi4624They aren't moving on to high-tech industries, they've been in it for a while now. But they as the original commenter noted, in some ways they are stagnating. Their chips can't keep up with TSMC, such that Samsung phones with Samsung chips are significantly worse than the US versions that use Qualcomm. Samsung is also struggling a lot, with shares falling over 30% this year.
@@rhymingisfun1 That's not true. S.Korea only just entered system semiconductor production and TSMC is just OEM - they don't sell their own semiconductor chips under their brand.
The problem is, if you start making good money, The ruling class will take you to court and say you're not smart enough to run your own business, Courts will hand your business over to them, they will then make their son-in-law the CEO, he'll pay himself 98% profits and you'll get a tinny cut of everything you built.
There’s definitely less people in the Christmas spirit these days here in Korea. In fact, there’s even more hatred and sadness as a result of the current economic situation we’re all living in, not just Korea alone…..
After the crisis in 1998. The Korean model is basically exporting a lot of goods to China the fastest growing economy at that time. But when China moved up the value chain. South Korea lost their market share in their largest export market
But Korea's export is only growing thanks to China for banning Korean products. Korea's annual export surpassed Japan this year, even though Korea is only half the population of Japan. Turns out that, China didn't matter so much. Look at the recognition of K-entertainment industries. K-pop and K-dramas were forced out of China, and it expanded to the world, and there is 300% increase in K-pop sales in 2024 since China banned Korean entertainment in 2016.
@Deepsleep-f3v that worked for kpop and cultural exports. But for capital goods and high tech equipments exports. China is basically an infinite money glitch for the Chaebols and other industrialist. Since they are in the same level field when it comes to the value chain. Korea needs to look to the emerging markets as a primary market for exports. Which China was successful at doing
@@bmanpura and from 1750-1850+, "Made in Britain", thanks to the First Industial RevolutIon, which allowed textiles &c to be made faster and more profitable than anywhere else on earth.
@@tmorganrileyyes, some overlap. 80’s didn’t have made in Taiwan (maybe very late 80s) but early 90’s had both made in Taiwan and made in Korea…and made in Mexico.
Sometimes, I find it really amazing, how they use such interesting words to numb your emotions and meaning behind it, especially for those who use English as a 2nd language.
I've always found it funny that Japan and other major powers got together for what was supposed to be a win-win type of deal, and then Japan's economy crashed just a few years afterwards, never to recover. Totally not part of the plan 😅
@@filippolippi02 It's terrible to be America's enemy. Even worse to be its so-called friend. America has no friends. Eventually, it will always crush you. In both Japan and SKorea, America is the problem. For NKorea, America has been the problem for 75 years. For Korea, America has conspired against it for over a century. Guess who greenlit Japan's colonization of Korea? Yes, Washington. Guess who divided Korea after WW2? Yes, Washington. Guess who keeps the Korea's divided? Yes, Washington.
Good point to not just compare SK to NK, but also China and Japan. SK was indeed lucky in timing their rise between Japan and China, and thankfully they were ready to seize that opportunity.
There is no comparison between SK and NK. But yes it certainly seems like global manufacturing follows a domino effect. Japan --> S. Korea --> China --> Vietnam. Every time a country gets too developed, manufacturing moves elsewhere for the cheaper labor. Very interesting but makes sense.
You are the stupidiest. When Japan rose, Korea was still weak. When Japan fell, Korea started to rise. China is a direct competitor for the cheap products. Japan and China have very little to do with Korea's rise
@@doomslayer4276 fair but I think human labor will stay around for decades. It will be a gradual transition. Some evidence that Indonesia may become a manufacturing hub like Vietnam
The Chaebol companies in SK are a perfect example of the big fish, little pond effect. They push for policies which maintain their power (keep themselves a big fish) at the cost of stagnating the national economy (keeping the pond little). It's why SK's GDP per capita has stalled in the low-to-mid $30k, versus $40k-$60k for most of Europe, and $80k for the U.S. Countries in Central and South America have the same problem, but much worse. The people in power staunchly oppose anything that would require them to give up some power, even if it would help their economy. Stagnating most of their economies at a GDP per capita of around $10k. What they don't realize (or refuse to risk) is that loosening up on the reigns and letting the people have more power, will actually make them wealthier. My favorite example of this is Henry Ford. When he first tried to make factories, the other factory owners didn't want to share power so cajoled workers into not applying for jobs with Ford. Out of frustration, Ford offered to pay $5/day - double the prevailing wage at the time. This got him the workers he wanted, but then a curious thing happened. His workers were now being paid enough that they could affed to buy the cars they were building. Which led to more demand for cars, which led to more factories being built, which led to more workers needing to be hired, which led to more damand for cars, etc. Catapulting Ford into one of the richest men on the planet. What happened was that the economy operates most efficiently when workers are paid slightly less than the productivity they're generating. The other factory owners were so eager for power, they had conspired to artificially lower wages far below what a free market would've set them at (just below the productivity of those workers), unwittingly stagnating the economy. Ford's $5/day was much closer to the true market wage. And when he actually paid his workers that, the economy around those workers exploded. Ford got to keep a smaller share of the money his factories were earning. But the increase in how much his factories were earning far outpaced that, meaning he had less power, but was making more money. The Chaebol and banana dicatorships in the Americas are the reciprocal of this. Their primary goal is to amass more power, even if it means they (and their countries) make less money.
According to you, Liberia should be the richest country in Africa. That's what the United States built in Africa, which you can understand as a little America. This shows that development is utopian without an economic base.
That is a stupid comment that will age like a milk in a hot jungle. Korea’s GDP per capita has surpassed Japan and its economy has passed the technological and competitiveness threshold that can sway and impact other advanced economies. It’s laughable you are invoking south american backwater economies to make comparisons. Silly you. The critical thing you are missing is how the korea today is attributed to education of the people which is rooted deep in korean history and culture. South america has nothing like the culture that emphasizes education.
Textbooks only goes so far, especially in societies with a narrow definition of dignified occupations and acceptable life choices like Korea. Remember East Asia was very much stagnant until Western-style schooling -- including not only technical studies but also the liberal arts needed to market those innovations and question the underlying social arrangements -- replaced what was basically rote memorization of classical literature and seeking artisan patronage from the established elites.
My life would be orders of magnitude better if I was living in a country with a GDP of 31k instead of 30k. If you use GDP as a metric for a country's value you are a clown, money makes life comfortable not meaning full.
@annanimose4850 sway and impact other economies? Nah...sk can't wield that huge impact over the field of industries that you mentioned. You are just exaggerating the reality. When Innovation is made by us, sk is just keen to adopt that, making product of their own style out of the Innovation.
Most video essays on South Korea are the same. Poorly researched, extremely amateur analysis which takes a lot of time to say very little of substance.
I listened to a podcast with a Korean American tech guy that said SK has more start ups now than all of Japan. And I would also really argue that the chaebols are not slow and uninovative. Samsung especially did a great job of predicting the electronic the last 20ish years.
Competition to get into these corporations are so intense that people spend more productive energy for being accepted being economically productive; and then they treat the jobs as "welfare jobs". This is a phenomenon common in Indian civil services as well.
It's good that you specified which Korean state you are talking about, so people dont start believing the North Korean Economic Miracle has ended (or ever started).
SK had a dictatorship, and arguably still has one. Minor opposition parties have been completely gutted and the parties that exist are hyper-leader focused with weak party structures... just look how ingrained that cult got.
It seems to be the end of the world's economic miracle? At the same time, incredibly, we got the richest single persons to have ever lived. I wonder if it's the money being transfered rather than not being created
@@RjsjrjsjrjsjThe problem is not an absolute number which would not mean much by itself as you said, it's the wealth inequality. The myth of "trickle-down" economics has been thoroughly disproven.
Correct. The world is getting more productive and technologically efficient, but more and more of the profits are siphoned off to our parasitic neo-aristocratic capitalist class. They have gobbled up all the growth of the last 40 years globally.
@@flayrekapperz7862 Sigh... Sure. That's an issue. But not the issue most think it is. There will always be wealth inequality because people, in general, are REALLY stupid and easy to con. The richest people in every era have NEVER been the most intelligent or qualified but they certainly knew (know) how to manipulate.
The fact that cryptocurrency is even a thing is a huge example of that. It creates pretty much zero wealth (negative wealth, in fact, when you factor in electricity and infrastructure costs). Rather, it just transfers wealth. A giant shell game.
I've just come from the TV video about South Korea. And now this video. Really a lot of things that you don't get to see directly about the country. Thanks for the video!
Actually, there are lots of young to middle aged Koreans moving to and working in South East Asia. Pay may not be as good, but the more laid-back lifestyle and low cost of living is very attractive indeed.
Họ chuyển đến Việt Nam và họ không muốn về Nam Triều Tiên. Nhiều người Nam Triều Tiên bị thuyên chuyển về Nam Triều Tiên họ đã cầu xin để được ở lại Việt Nam. Thu nhập của họ có thể cho họ có cuộc sống tốt ở Việt Nam. Môi trường ở Việt Nam không áp lực như ở Nam Triều Tiên!
@nguyenhieu1687 Yes, I travel to and visit foreign-owned companies in Indonesia constantly. A lot of them are Korean companies, and some of the Korean employees ended up staying in Indonesia running their own company or even open restaurants! They told me they and their kids are 10 times happier here.
@@hyphen2612 The older generation, aged 35 and above, who have been living in Indonesia for 10 years or more, are generally quite pleasant. However, many of those under 30 who have recently moved can sometimes be a hassle or even openly racist. Not too long ago, there was a scandal in an online forum for Indonesian Korean expats, with remarks such as, 'Their skin is dark, the ugliest in Southeast Asia.'
@@ori5581 In fact, there are many Koreans living in Vietnam and they do not want to return. In addition to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Da Nang also have many Koreans. Vietnamese people go to Korea to work to earn money because they earn more money when they exchange it to Vietnamese currency. They earn more money when they work in Korea because of the exchange rate difference. Vietnamese people earn money in Korea to have a better life in Vietnam, unlike Koreans. Vietnamese people earn money in Korea for a few years and then return home.
South Korea has never been a capitalist country. It always been either a military dictatorship or centrally planned through chaebols. However, in all practical terms that is the definition of capitalism.
All East Asian countries are same with a group of people (government or corporations) staying power for a very long period that can make long term plans to get things done. Compare to the Philippines which end the Marcos dictatorship in the 1980s but the government literally hasn’t done anything for the country in those years.
Although ironically those long-term plans don't include literally living on as an ethnostate, having brought their populations to age and shrink with every generation since their initial Baby Boom blew out.
@@vrealzhou Philippines doesn't have Han classical philosophy as reference, so they fail like many Latin American countries. The most developed countries in Asia, adopted Han classical philosophy and culture, in Japanese it's 漢字文化圏. Even Japan's rapid industrialization was due to the Confucian educated Samurai's application of ancient Chinese wisdom. Unless Philippine adopt Han culture and learning they will not succeed.
Its the culture, the whole east democracy asian is not like the west. Do you see how China and Vietnam doing pretty well with communism? There is a pattern there
re: North Korea, let's be real it's been sanctioned so hard it can barely do any business at all with other countries. That would tank anyone, let alone a communist dictatorship. I don't think it's a fair communism vs capitalism comparison, and I love capitalism
NK is not communist. Go read the definition. There's literally never been a true communist nation. And NK has only been sanctioned because it wants to make its own rules and f everybody else.
I mean it is not even really communism, in the same way it call itself "Democratic People's Republic" but isn't any of those word. Communism is all about the common ownership of the production... and I do not see a average joe owning whatever... and that without even mentioning communism is still a branch of socialism (or vis versa read it in the way you prefer) and let's say socialism and NK are like on the opposite. And the funniest thing is communism in some more pushed/extreme form are closer to anarchy than any other political system (but people really do not understand anarchy and I do not blame them but I am not going to try and fail to write a full on political TLDR in a youtube comment section)
@@JimGamingTV maybe I phrased it work, I did not want to make a point about capitalism, look at china for that too, I mean it is not because SK use the term communism that it IS communist in the same wya they name themself democratic when they are obviously not , and for communism that the thing with most of them, they use the name and part that interest them but not the actual philosophy
The success is simple, both korea and Taiwan went the same path, a period of military dictatorship strong man who made economic planning and guided the country through rapid development then handed the great economy to the Civilian government with full of politicians whos only goal is to enrich themselves as much as possible before the next election
Well, they also were anti-communist, so the west flooded them with investments (ignoring the reality of their own military dictatorships) while the others received sanctions and embargoes.
Those dictatorships were also anti-communist ones who eventually yielded to democracy, unlike communist ones who double down on oppression. That's why their growth has remained more stable compared to the more narrowly-focused top-heavy ones like China and Venezuela where a good shock could send their states toppling in popular apathy over a collapse of authority.
@@doujinflip you're just being too emotional to the point of lying. China is not collapsing, but looking at the US, the social breakdown is more symptomatic of a country about to fall.
Not only are we ended our development, we are doomed. Korea’s fertility rate is a staggering 0.78, not many businesses attract large amount of capital, and no one (at least the decision and policy makers) is really interested in REAL technological innovation. Three main factors of economic growth are gone.
Bro relax it's not like you'll ever end up like Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela or Zimbabwe. You people always say this pessimistic stuff but the fact of the matter is South Korea will always remain a first world, developed country.
@@osmosis2808 0.78 fertility rate means the population becomes more than half after every generation. Our country's population problem is INTENSE. You can actually FEEL the difference year by year when you take the Seoul metro subway and encounter with so many foreigners from middle Asia, China, and Southeast Asia speaking their own languages who came here to work in hard-laboring jobs and earn relatively large amount of income compared to people in their homelands. I'm not saying that's a problem, but many of us have some disbelief to especially Chinese people, who are mainly a communism party friend of our enemy nation DPRK.
It's a democratic country on the surface, but is a really, deeply flawed one. People tend to turn a blind eye on the atrocities done by the opposition party. What we need is a well-thought-out systemic improvement, not a subsequent series of power grabs and blame games.
The ruling party right now is the one that caused all the real problems in the first place. The opposition party at least have working brains to impeach our rogue president.
Progress by denying demographic is an incomplete progress and will bite back later on. Japan, china, south korea taiwan, are example and are now experiencing slugish growth.
There are so many other factors than just Samsung and chaebols that’s straining the Korean economy. This video touches none of that such as household debt, real estate, culture or politics, and sounds like a video from every other youtube channel. Gotta do better than that for you to be worth my time
Dunno about anyone else, but I like when there's and EE video to accompany a Context Matters. Releasing the pair at the same time is so much more informative than a standalone.
So in reality the large monopolistic conglomerates were positive to productivity, by pushing workers to be better educated and more productive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Having visited some cities that are very dense and very economically successful I now know that their living conditions are awful. Medium sized cities that are in their growth phase are best. You can still own a home and raise a family. Super cities are nation killers.
Has nothing to do with density and all to do with housing supply. Montreal is the densest city in Canada and jobs pay the same as everywhere else, yet rents are cheaper, because they built enough housing for everyone. Because rents are cheaper, people who want to move to the suburbs (you do you I guess) like Laval will also pay less for Single Family Homes.
The problem that SK has with the Chaebol system is that it is essentially a copy and paste of Japan's colonial system along with Japan's industrial policy at the time. The only thing they didn't copy from Japan was that Japan was heavy handed with anti-trust and actively broke up companies getting too big or too vertically integrated, sure it still had/has dominate players in a certain field... but Sony doesn't make toothpaste (LG and Samsung do)
Have personally worked with them, and based on statistics- theres a good chance theyre not..only time youd find them happy is to be able to rebel against their ridiculous social pressures and competition
한국의15살으로서 전적으로동의. 제가 지금 느끼기 로는. 심각한경쟁. 그로인한 사람들의 이기주의. 자연과 동떨어짐. 삶의의미 없음. 이정도일거같습니다. 저역시 우울증을 겪으면서 삶의의미를 게속 찾고있습니다. 하지만 한국은 이러한 문제만 해결돼면 굉장히 강한나라가될것입니다! 난 한국이그렇게되길 바란다 하지만역시 현실은 현실일거같다 끔찍한 정치권 갈등. 부정부패. 솔직히 말하면 15살인내가 보기에도 한국은 좀 이상하긴하다. 아무튼 앞으로 한국의 미래가어떻게될지 앞으로 엄청난 변화를 겪을거같다.
@@Breakfastststst there's no other western nation with such "rat race" level of pressure and competition, from childhood to adulthood. No other western society so obsessed with looks, to the point cosmetic surgery is common place. No other western nation with few national companies that dwarf the rest of the country, in fact controlling it. Japan would be the only nation to compare, but even them are not as far into dystopia that is South Korea.
China manufactures everything that South Korea can produce, and it’s cheaper. South Korea has developed a model of mass production and dumping, and China has also imitated this model.
It makes no difference if the products have a reputation for high risk. Chinese cars have zero attention to safety. I mean Japanese still outsell Korean ones due to their reputation for reliability. China still has LONG way to go to gain a reputation for quality.
@@Richard-xu8to That’s a stretch. The reputation is being suppressed by western media. People are aware of the quality china can and often does produce
Kumho is a much bigger company than it seems. They own Asiana Airlines before selling off to Korean Air, international bus lines in multiple countires, are in construction of apartment buildings and financial sectors to name a few. Edit: to add, I actually know a former chairman's son who ran Kumho. We used to hang out and have meals. He was a down to earth polite guy but no doubt his family was of substantial wealth and power in Korea.
Wow! South Korea's economic journey is mind-blowing - from post-war devastation to global powerhouse, yet now facing serious challenges with its mega-corporations. What a complex and fascinating economic transformation!
Great coverage, it does indeed feel like the end of an era with South Korea. I do agree it may have been on a bull run too long. The biggest problems of S. Korea: - Lowest birth rate 0.78 (to put in perspective USA is 1.66 and Japan 1.26) - Horrible leadership where majority of the presidents end up in jail after their tenure - Messed up education and pressure culture that creates high depression and suicide rate - Somewhat corrupt and too-big of conglomerates that control/influence the economy and politics of Korea - Real estate bubble that drives up prices of home units. (people just can't organically afford those over-abundant apartment units that are everywhere in Korea) Granted, they have some good things going on: - Rise of K-pop and K-Culture that is being consumed globally with rising popularity (which does have its own dark side) - Korean people are extremely resilient I hope they make it through with the current political and economic turmoil.
Only question I have is what could the north been able to achieve if it didn’t have harsh sanctions against it? What would the economy have become if it didn’t have sanctions and blockades holding it down?
Not nearly as much as SK for sure. NK practices a system of 주체 (self sufficiency) and that's the primary reason for their initial economic problems, famine etc. Their modern problems of sanctions is due to KJU making nuclear threats etc
Like dictatorship and lack of freedoms and strict education, it is very good at industrializing an economy extremely fast like Taiwan, S Korea, China, etc., but its not good for long term, sustainability AFTER becoming developed
Are western liberal democracies monopolistic strangleholds on tech services, aviation, defense technology, and healthcare somehow better off for the rest of the world ? East Asia has traditionally had authoritarian institutions in the past and used those very same political mechanisms to establish socially toxic competitive environments to their populations because they absolutely want those shares of industries ...
The thing is, when your country is one of the poorest in the world and lacks any resources, you can't really think of long-term problems as you would in the US or Europe. Establishing an authoritarian government and focusing support on a few of the most competitive companies is the easiest and fastest way to gain prosperity. Imagine you're living in one of the poorest nations right now. You see women selling their bodies to foreigners to survive and kids eating whatever looks edible from a pile of trash. Would you really be that concerned about the problems you would have to face AFTER being developed?
They can switch to the future plan after industrialisation and got the resources to apply those plans. The western countries developed for more than 300 years but east Asia did in like 60 years. Compare to Philippines which democratised in the 1980s and it’s still one of the most backward countries in Asia today.
All we need is robots to get to the point they can be dressed up as humans and occasionally revolt, plus a little commercial neurotechnology, and we can cyberpunk it in Seoul!
If I were the Koreans, I would try something new. The old approach based on hierarchy, a certain cycle of events, and subordination will not take them anywhere further. It is time to introduce creative thinking, give people without formal education a chance, and pave new paths.
The martial law crisis really had nothing to do with economics. It was an attempt at a self-coup fuelled by some...questionable allegatlons made by fringe right-wing youtubers and a president and few key personnel who believed them. Trying to place more meaning in it than that is reductive at best and misleading at worst. I can respect that a video created in response to an event could necessarily be deterministic but I'm quite confident that almost all respectable analyses of the self-coup does not try to tie the chaebols into it at all.
To most stable countries, a declaration of martial law is a huge deal. Your apathy only reinforces the perception of instability. For perspective, Trump toyed with the idea of martial law several times but was ultimately dissuaded due to the chaos it would cause. As someone from the U.S., I have firsthand experience with the challenges of an unstable government.
@@jrkc9218 I'm not trying to claim that the incident (and the subsequent ongoing political drama) is not a significant event. My point is that it has very little to do with the economic structure of Korea. Does it point to instability and uncertainty, including economically? Of course. But is this video correct in linking it to the economic structure and development model of Korea? my opinion is decidedly no. My apathy is not in the fact that it happened, it is pointed towards the logic of this video.
@@jrkc9218To be fair, the West world today has Terrorism, violent protests, and many social risks. The martial law incident was an unexpected incident, but Korea, which handled it, showed that the system was operating normally in every way. I think that Korea's system is working more peacefully and democratically than most developed countries. Rather, I think that the anxiety factor of the Korean economy is more related to the low birth rate, aging population, unstable relationship with China, and U.S. protectionism
I think this video does a great job in explaining the circumstances in which South Korean economy grew, and how the economic environment that led to prosperity is now contributing to its stagnation now. However, I think this video is also dismissive of (or intentionally omits) the thoughtful, sometimes controversial, planning by the South Korean leaders and hard work and sacrifice by the working class over the years to compete on the global economic stage. This video seems to suggest that a lot of the economic growth "occurred" because the circumstances were ripe to produce such an event, and not because there were a lot of behind-the-scenes creative planning and hard work from the South Korean people and taking advantage of the cards that were dealt them. Take, for example, the military presence in Korea (and Japan and Germany). The Americans put the bases in those places primarily to build a political wall or a buffer zone against the communist countries that were competing against the Western Allies after WW2. That the bases offered "protections and economic prosperity to the Koreans" were just a secondary effect of the America-first policy. People tend to forget that the Korean Armistice was signed without the presence of South Korean representative, and that Koreans did not want the country divided in two. Many South Koreans worked menial jobs in those American military bases to earn minimal wages, though American minimal wage translated to good money for Koreans back then. Those same people saved that money to send kids to college, buy land, etc. so that they can become more prosperous. Also, this video seems to imply that the South Korean economic boom occurred with the government becoming more democratic in the late 80s and Deng Xiaoping's opening of the Chinese market; therefore, this video implies that those two countries became more prosperous because of ripe circumstances - more democratic and capitalistic market economy - but we only want to focus on Korea, not China, because Korea is a democracy. This is an oversimplification. I think the creator of the video actually misses the fact that the South Korean economic growth started in the 60s, soon after the end of Korean War with the Korean leaders at the time being hugely responsible for creating the roadmap for the next 20 years that led to the economic prosperity in the 80s. Yes, the leaders in South Korea in the 60s and 70s were often recognized as dictators, but they were also passionate about pulling the common man out of poverty, all the while dealing with North Korean sympathizers and communists in South Korea who wanted South Korea to reunite with the North as one communist country. They implemented many changes for Korea, which had been an agrarian society, to become an export-driven, western-style economy. Korea had no natural resources like oil or heavy metals that are critical for an industrial nation, so they had to come up with plans to import raw materials and create them into desirable products suitable for exports. Contrast this to a lot of the current middle income economies in Latin America and Southeast Asia that have many advantages that the Koreas did not, such as natural resources, the size of the country, pre-existing infrastructure (Korea was bombed through and through just a decade ago from the 60s), climate (Korea is frigid in the winter), among others. I can keep going but you get my point.
@@nickkangster8475 hard work is circumstantial. If your hard work pays off, you will continue to work hard. If you live in a corrupt and dysfunctional society, your hard work will not be rewarded, and progress isn’t made.
South Korea has their eyes set too much on internal competition. It’s such a shame. They grind so much, and they’re brilliant, dedicated, intelligent & beautiful. They certainly got grit. If only they start competiting with the world, shift their economy to sell abroad. For example, you can not use foreign cards to make a transaction online, which is SUCH a bummer because that right there is a national lost opportunity. Also they have too much investment tied up in real estate. If only those money were funneled into diversified portfolios in stocks.
Also, China is Russia's most important ally, and they have a pretty mutualistic relationship: Chinese export their products to Russia, and Russians now export a lot of oil, gas and minerals to China.
Twenty years ago, Koreans who decided to settle in Vietnam were considered unwise and lazy by other Koreans living in Korea. Nowadays, we can't stop them from coming over and more young Korean manage to speak Korean, English and Vietnamese in order to holding down jobs here.
South Korea's problems are the same as any 1st world economy with bleeding edge technology, there is never enough entrepreneurs putting their own time and money behind their ideas. It is easy to use financial power to build up capital-intensive industries where competition is limited, but how do you get the garage startups that create new products and business models and become household names? Where is South Korea's "Silicon Valley" with its hundreds of venture capitalists? In fact, where are the 1st world's "Silicon Valleys" other than that one?
The patriarchy and class hierarchy makes the job market so toxic. It's embedded into the culture, even in its language. Major social changes are needed as well.
I live in Australia, 10 years ago Korean cars were everywhere but today they are struggling, China has been overtaking Korea’s share of the Australian market.
0:33 I wanted to kindly bring to your attention that this naming is a subject of international dispute. In South Korea, it is referred to as the "East Sea," reflecting its historical and cultural significance. I would appreciate it if you could consider updating the map or labeling to reflect this nuance.
Korea's top-down style benefited the country in the 60s becuase the command economy led to rapid, focused economic growth. The same top-down style prevails today and stifles Korea's potential. You see it in Chaebols, education, a lack of independent thinking, and so many other aspects of daily life.
No matter what you say, there is no way I will agree that Korean products are better than Japanese. Is Hyundai better than Toyota? Samsung better than Sony? No way. The only thing Korea does better than Japan is semiconductors. Japan kinda give up long time ago because the low price of Korean products.
the korean car brands generally outcompete on value compared to japanese brands even if the japanese brands are more reliable, with sony it depends what products your comparing but samsung clears when it comes to anything that isnt professional level gear, a lot of japanese brands have been failing to innovate at the same level as other countries, theyre still high quality but theyre a generation behind, i think japan has tried for too long to only compete with itself.
The US troops helping with Korean GDP is some wild imagination you are not even afraid of showing... They shop at their PX, and they rarely come out of their camps. Korea creates majority of GDP by export. Like.. Where do I eveb begin with these types of videos.. I rarely see any US soldiers in Korea. Like.. What?
These videos are always Bias honestly ,they don’t even hide it at this point ,how can US troop make a third world country into a first world country,no US troops can transform an economy into a first world country,it is ridiculous they even mention that .
i love the economic miracle of the working class person being incapable of affording their own life, let alone being able to raise children. almost like our idea of successful economies is based entirely on how much wealth the powerful can extract from the working people. north korea is way worse off due to americas massive bombing campaign during the korean war, and their refusal to bow to america after that bombing campaign. there are problems with north koreas rulers, but the reason the north remains such a dictatorship is how antagonistic america is. if an imaginary country destroyed your entire country would you care about the entirety of the policy positions of your leaders, or would you rally behind the leaders which promise to fight back against the invaders, even if they dont hold policy positions which are good for you? the problems in north korea stem from american intervention in the region, while the problems in south korea stem from... the exact same thing. american meddling damaged both halves of korea massively, the south merely accepted america running their economy so the wealthy could stay wealthy. the issues we are seeing come from american imperialism, on both sides of the korean border
If you want to transform how you make presentations, check out gamma.app/ today - the AI-powered tool that makes beautiful slide decks in minutes, without all the hassle!
Can you make a video about the baltic states? Estonia especially and it's tech ecosystem?
ai slop, opinion rejected
Neither positive or negative,korea will suffer heavily at least more than japan since its fertility rate has gone below 0.7.As a person who guessed this situation at 2020korean election(because the overwhelmingly won political party did nothing),I wonder why this topic boom nowdays(laughing sarcastically)
I know you are run by the Australian government.
Promoting AI as a scholar tool ? REALLY ?!! You should be ashamed of yourself, it's just plagiarism with extra steps
How many times must we see a "too big to fail" business do just that, and fail? History truly is a never ending time loop.
I don't know, man. I'm still convinced my Dutch East Indies stock is just experiencing a temporary dip. In the meantime, would you like to buy some exquisite tulip bulbs?
@@merovekh Why sure! Certainly the simple tulip bulb could never cause trouble, or affect our strong Dutch economy in any way. How much for a bulb? Will 50 florins suffice?
The too big to fail means that it will impact the economy of the entire country if the company fails, it does not literally mean that the company is immortal
@@Deep_Side_Sleep Uh..yes? I am indeed aware that it does not literally mean immortal...why would someone even think that? Regardless, it doesn't change my comment at all.
How about Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc?
It most certainly doesn’t help when your worth in a country is based on going to a certain university or working for one of the three biggest companies in said country or when everything is basically in one mega city or when the working environment is basically designed to make you as busy as possible to the point where having kids is incredibly unreasonable. Wait i just described basically most of East Asia
And the US
@@Honorbound43 no, the US has a lot more metropolises
Not US. I'm an East Asian student who immigrated here. US study and work culture is nothing like east Asia, and it's mostly a good thing, as the quality of life is much better, no crazy studying and work unbalanced life style.
@@Honorbound43 definitely not the US. If you think you work hard multiply that by 10 and that’s East Asian work/school life
China is not super centralised
It's never a good sign when a country has companies that are "too big to fail". No private company should be protected by the government from failing.
Every big country has those.
Actually some say that a country is as powerful as its companies.
@@galerinha Idk, China just clapped its biggest real state developer with a giant middle finger. Now what? Was it too big to fail or nah?
@@MGZetta every big company in china has state participation, essentially they’re are all owned by the government.
Government is only transferring his assets from partially owned to fully (Indirectly by state banks) owned.
Yup. If only America would understand that about banks.
Samsung isn't the only 'big" company in Korea. Korea is a developed country, because there are hundreds of companies. Just last year, small private cosmetic companies made billions in export. And all companies in the US are protected by the government. Look at the amount of tax that they bring into a country. Also, the amount of income that they create. Many international companies are subsidized by the local government as well.
Lots of young people here in Korea are moving away from jobs in these conglomerates and getting into blue collar jobs becoming disillusioned with the hyper competitive rat race. So Korea is trying to attract foreign workers by offering scholarships to their universities but the process to get a long term visa is still ridiculously difficult .
Asians are notoriously xenophobic. So that'll work great. 👍🙄
Do you think this could be good for the birth rate?
I heard that a big reason for it beeing so low is the enormous competitive school system, which leaves no room for family
@@karlheinz4059 The birth rate (like most things) is a combination of factors. Indeed one of them is the hypercompetitive society, which burns people out, but the competitive school system means very high expenditures (not just for tuition, but extra curriculars, cram school and other tutoring) - children are therefore incredibly expensive burdens for a society that also has a cost of living crisis, like most of the developed world. The competitiveness also translates to interpersonal relationships - Korea is still highly patriarchal, women are expected to quit their jobs and stay home to do all of the childcare, and serve their husbands and his family, which leaves them with little support systems, independent finances and strongly isolated. Many (and closer to most now) today therefore choose celibacy, since it allows them to maintain their professional standing and financial independence. Koreans also acutely remember their own stress from their school years and increasingly consider that to be an unfit environment to subject their own potential children to. In short, life is too stressful, expensive and inequitable in Korea to bring a new generation into it just to subject that generation to the same. It is a perfect storm
@@karlheinz4059 The birth rate issue is a different ball game. There are a myriad of reasons for that and lets not forget that globally in developed countries, the birth rate is falling. Its just a tad accelerated in Korea.
I don't know what Korea you're talking about, but it's not the Korea I just moved back from this past July. Very few young people are willing even to live outside of Seoul, much less accept the intense of loss of social status that accompanies blue collar work in South Korea's similarly hypercompetitive social hierarchy.
props to koreans for fitting two dystopias on a single peninsula
Edit: bro, some people just can't get a joke 😔
No matter how much hard work the people of other countries do, they still can't earn money equal to Europeans. I am talking about the majority of the people of a country, not a single person (GDP per capita).
The top 50 richest countries in GDP per capita are European countries or oil-rich countries.
The real reason Europeans occupy all of North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, controlling almost 50% of the world's area and natural resources.
Now, some will give examples of:
- The Korean Economic Miracle,
- The Japanese Economic Miracle,
- And the Taiwan Economic Miracle.
But in reality, no miracle happened.
After World War II, Japan received $23 billion in aid, and Korea received $13 billion from America-these amounts are much higher in today’s value, though the exact numbers are unclear.
Japan, Korea, and Taiwan became rich by becoming slaves of America (Europeans). These countries provided military bases to America and followed the same foreign policy as Europeans (for example, when the U.S. sanctioned Russia, Japan also sanctioned Russia). In exchange, America gave them prosperity through money, aid, technology transfer, factory setups, etc.
For example, Taiwan is a small island country with a population of 10 million, but still, Taiwan is rich because of semiconductors. How did semiconductors come to Taiwan? Because of the USA.
RCA (Radio Corporation of America) set up its semiconductor factory in Taiwan in:
- 1966 (initially as a joint venture)
- 1970 (as a wholly-owned subsidiary, RCA Taiwan Ltd.)
@@Atheist-hy6xq It appears you are a white supremacist, don't worry that your beloved europe is also falling behind China.
@@dannnsss8034 me?
Nope I am not bot
&
I am not from china
@@Atheist-hy6xq You gave a long explanation which shows Japan, Korea and Taiwan should be grateful to USA and should keep following their lead, and be away from China, which does not provide such advantages while exerting their dominance. Much clearer now. Thank you.
As usual, letting just a small handful of companies dominate the market will just lead to long term instability down the line. Here in the US, we learned this after the 30s and forgot it in the 80s, which is why things are getting so shaky now. Sadly, the same is true in Korea and other nations as well. Like any monoculture, letting only the big trees dominate while choking out the little trees just leads to an empty field when the big trees eventually fall.
Having big players is not the main issue. Bailing them out when they screw up and creating a regulatory environment that actually protects them is when issues occur. If these big companies are not competitive then other companies will take market share.
@@yt.damianthats not true. These big players have more than enough money and resources to destroy rivals even when they are extremely uncompetitive and bad, which is what anti monopoly laws were created to stop.
@@bornstar481 Hello, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, etc.. kkkk
@@bornstar481 more regulation hinders new entrants far more than it does the incumbents who have the resources. there is no example you can show of a monopoly being broken up while it was at the height of its market dominance. every time it has happened newer players were already reducing the incumbents market share with new or better or cheaper alternatives. it does create more bureaucrats and lets the government pat itself on the back though.
@@yt.damian anti monopoly laws only target monopolies and not all businesses
This video doesn't cover it, but the bigger issue than corporate debt is household debt. With rising real estate prices and subsequent speculation, the household debt ratio is higher than in any other country. (Though it's not statistically ranked first, that's because South Korea's debt measurement excludes lease deposit costs.) The government is currently working hard to control the situation, but if real estate prices stop rising, it will lead to a very difficult situation.
Also, household debt is far too easy to accrue and relatively poorly secured. It's a miracle their financial sector is still standing.
Hard to prop up real estate when your population is tapering off and about to start declining. China is the most extreme example of this, even more so than SK I think.
Which way are they working? And who is providing them with faster cash flow? The growing population or the blood-sucking corporations?
Government working hard to control the situation = government making things worse
just waiting for the population to decline and prices drop so i can get a place for myself without being ripped off
Well South Korea ate Japans lunch, then China did the same to them. Thats how the global economy works. Even China is slowing down, losing manufacturing business to Vietnam and Mexico. You cant be the top dog forever. Thats why innovation in technology is crucial. Taiwan hit the jackpot with its chip industry. South Korea is just another country in the world offering the same goods to everyone that can be obtained in other countries for cheaper. Their innovation has stagnated.
pretty sure they are moving on to more "hi-tech" manufacturing, not just the simple, human labour type which they have now given to mexico and vietnam
@@badcgi4624They aren't moving on to high-tech industries, they've been in it for a while now. But they as the original commenter noted, in some ways they are stagnating. Their chips can't keep up with TSMC, such that Samsung phones with Samsung chips are significantly worse than the US versions that use Qualcomm.
Samsung is also struggling a lot, with shares falling over 30% this year.
but US stays on top forever
S.Korea wants to graduate from manufacturing and move up to higher food chain and they're doing this.
@@rhymingisfun1 That's not true. S.Korea only just entered system semiconductor production and TSMC is just OEM - they don't sell their own semiconductor chips under their brand.
The problem is, if you start making good money, The ruling class will take you to court and say you're not smart enough to run your own business, Courts will hand your business over to them, they will then make their son-in-law the CEO, he'll pay himself 98% profits and you'll get a tinny cut of everything you built.
This happened to whom?
There’s definitely less people in the Christmas spirit these days here in Korea. In fact, there’s even more hatred and sadness as a result of the current economic situation we’re all living in, not just Korea alone…..
Big disagree. I was feeling this year was the most Christmasy ove seen in Seoul
@@sarabrenton6364he did say these days he wasn’t just talking about this year but past aswell
😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@solenya4137 I'm saying it feels more Christmasy than in the past
After the crisis in 1998. The Korean model is basically exporting a lot of goods to China the fastest growing economy at that time. But when China moved up the value chain. South Korea lost their market share in their largest export market
But Korea's export is only growing thanks to China for banning Korean products. Korea's annual export surpassed Japan this year, even though Korea is only half the population of Japan. Turns out that, China didn't matter so much. Look at the recognition of K-entertainment industries. K-pop and K-dramas were forced out of China, and it expanded to the world, and there is 300% increase in K-pop sales in 2024 since China banned Korean entertainment in 2016.
@Deepsleep-f3v that worked for kpop and cultural exports. But for capital goods and high tech equipments exports. China is basically an infinite money glitch for the Chaebols and other industrialist. Since they are in the same level field when it comes to the value chain. Korea needs to look to the emerging markets as a primary market for exports. Which China was successful at doing
@@Deepsleep-f3v
韓国の輸出が多いのは日本のように工場をアメリカやメキシコ、カナダ、中国に移す必要がないからじゃん。
しかも韓国の最大輸出先は中国で、輸出依存度は日本よりずっと高い。
@@theburden9920 Korea needs to protect its IP..
I remember 1980’s was “made in Korea” then 1990s was “made in Taiwan” and then 2000’s was “made in China”. I’m guessing 1970’s was “Made in Japan”
It was
And, if I recall, also "Made in Hong Kong" and "Made in Singapore" in those earlier decades.
If you look further, around 1850 was basically made in America (with steel coming from Japan later on)
@@bmanpura and from 1750-1850+, "Made in Britain", thanks to the First Industial RevolutIon, which allowed textiles &c to be made faster and more profitable than anywhere else on earth.
@@tmorganrileyyes, some overlap. 80’s didn’t have made in Taiwan (maybe very late 80s) but early 90’s had both made in Taiwan and made in Korea…and made in Mexico.
Plaza Accord "to ALLOW the Japanese Yen to rise" because Japanese manufacturing was becoming too efficient - heh. Surely you meant "Force".
Sometimes, I find it really amazing, how they use such interesting words to numb your emotions and meaning behind it, especially for those who use English as a 2nd language.
Yep that was one serious kneecapping. The USA wasn't happy about Japan's meteoric rise.
I've always found it funny that Japan and other major powers got together for what was supposed to be a win-win type of deal, and then Japan's economy crashed just a few years afterwards, never to recover. Totally not part of the plan 😅
YES. And that crippled Japan so bad that allow China to rise and became a bigger problem for US. What a stupid move.
@@filippolippi02 It's terrible to be America's enemy. Even worse to be its so-called friend. America has no friends. Eventually, it will always crush you.
In both Japan and SKorea, America is the problem. For NKorea, America has been the problem for 75 years. For Korea, America has conspired against it for over a century. Guess who greenlit Japan's colonization of Korea? Yes, Washington. Guess who divided Korea after WW2? Yes, Washington. Guess who keeps the Korea's divided? Yes, Washington.
Good point to not just compare SK to NK, but also China and Japan. SK was indeed lucky in timing their rise between Japan and China, and thankfully they were ready to seize that opportunity.
There is no comparison between SK and NK. But yes it certainly seems like global manufacturing follows a domino effect. Japan --> S. Korea --> China --> Vietnam. Every time a country gets too developed, manufacturing moves elsewhere for the cheaper labor. Very interesting but makes sense.
You are the stupidiest. When Japan rose, Korea was still weak. When Japan fell, Korea started to rise. China is a direct competitor for the cheap products. Japan and China have very little to do with Korea's rise
@@LuKiSCraft can't happen forever , when automation and AI grows energy and logistic costs matter more
@@doomslayer4276 fair but I think human labor will stay around for decades. It will be a gradual transition. Some evidence that Indonesia may become a manufacturing hub like Vietnam
@@LuKiSCraft Hence the middle income trap.
The Chaebol companies in SK are a perfect example of the big fish, little pond effect. They push for policies which maintain their power (keep themselves a big fish) at the cost of stagnating the national economy (keeping the pond little). It's why SK's GDP per capita has stalled in the low-to-mid $30k, versus $40k-$60k for most of Europe, and $80k for the U.S. Countries in Central and South America have the same problem, but much worse. The people in power staunchly oppose anything that would require them to give up some power, even if it would help their economy. Stagnating most of their economies at a GDP per capita of around $10k.
What they don't realize (or refuse to risk) is that loosening up on the reigns and letting the people have more power, will actually make them wealthier. My favorite example of this is Henry Ford. When he first tried to make factories, the other factory owners didn't want to share power so cajoled workers into not applying for jobs with Ford. Out of frustration, Ford offered to pay $5/day - double the prevailing wage at the time. This got him the workers he wanted, but then a curious thing happened. His workers were now being paid enough that they could affed to buy the cars they were building. Which led to more demand for cars, which led to more factories being built, which led to more workers needing to be hired, which led to more damand for cars, etc. Catapulting Ford into one of the richest men on the planet.
What happened was that the economy operates most efficiently when workers are paid slightly less than the productivity they're generating. The other factory owners were so eager for power, they had conspired to artificially lower wages far below what a free market would've set them at (just below the productivity of those workers), unwittingly stagnating the economy. Ford's $5/day was much closer to the true market wage. And when he actually paid his workers that, the economy around those workers exploded. Ford got to keep a smaller share of the money his factories were earning. But the increase in how much his factories were earning far outpaced that, meaning he had less power, but was making more money.
The Chaebol and banana dicatorships in the Americas are the reciprocal of this. Their primary goal is to amass more power, even if it means they (and their countries) make less money.
According to you, Liberia should be the richest country in Africa. That's what the United States built in Africa, which you can understand as a little America. This shows that development is utopian without an economic base.
That is a stupid comment that will age like a milk in a hot jungle. Korea’s GDP per capita has surpassed Japan and its economy has passed the technological and competitiveness threshold that can sway and impact other advanced economies.
It’s laughable you are invoking south american backwater economies to make comparisons. Silly you. The critical thing you are missing is how the korea today is attributed to education of the people which is rooted deep in korean history and culture. South america has nothing like the culture that emphasizes education.
Textbooks only goes so far, especially in societies with a narrow definition of dignified occupations and acceptable life choices like Korea. Remember East Asia was very much stagnant until Western-style schooling -- including not only technical studies but also the liberal arts needed to market those innovations and question the underlying social arrangements -- replaced what was basically rote memorization of classical literature and seeking artisan patronage from the established elites.
My life would be orders of magnitude better if I was living in a country with a GDP of 31k instead of 30k. If you use GDP as a metric for a country's value you are a clown, money makes life comfortable not meaning full.
@annanimose4850 sway and impact other economies? Nah...sk can't wield that huge impact over the field of industries that you mentioned. You are just exaggerating the reality.
When Innovation is made by us, sk is just keen to adopt that, making product of their own style out of the Innovation.
But to be fair: every major player has major problems right now. Like... Literally there is now power left without huge cracks...
yeah literally lol, the same thing is going on in china rn, all happened in Japan, and is going on in so many countries
hope this doesn't lead to ww3...
I honestly expected more from your video. All these pointers are common knowledge
Most video essays on South Korea are the same. Poorly researched, extremely amateur analysis which takes a lot of time to say very little of substance.
I listened to a podcast with a Korean American tech guy that said SK has more start ups now than all of Japan. And I would also really argue that the chaebols are not slow and uninovative. Samsung especially did a great job of predicting the electronic the last 20ish years.
Competition to get into these corporations are so intense that people spend more productive energy for being accepted being economically productive; and then they treat the jobs as "welfare jobs". This is a phenomenon common in Indian civil services as well.
North Korea is communism dystopia while south Korea is capitalism dystopia, 😆
And America is 🌈 idiocracy dystopia
And NK isn't even communist lol! It's just a military dictatorship likening itself to a dynasty!
pretty sure that North Korea is autocratic rather the communist.
@@hikodzu and American is idiocracy dystopian
And even the capitalist dystopia turned out to be much better than the communist one 😅
It's good that you specified which Korean state you are talking about, so people dont start believing the North Korean Economic Miracle has ended (or ever started).
I mean SK wasn't a democracy until 1988. They also have some pretty hardcore protectionist stances
SK had a dictatorship, and arguably still has one. Minor opposition parties have been completely gutted and the parties that exist are hyper-leader focused with weak party structures... just look how ingrained that cult got.
It seems to be the end of the world's economic miracle? At the same time, incredibly, we got the richest single persons to have ever lived. I wonder if it's the money being transfered rather than not being created
If you're thinking Muskrat, you're wrong. In every era there's been a "richest person ever". Until the next era.
@@RjsjrjsjrjsjThe problem is not an absolute number which would not mean much by itself as you said, it's the wealth inequality. The myth of "trickle-down" economics has been thoroughly disproven.
Correct. The world is getting more productive and technologically efficient, but more and more of the profits are siphoned off to our parasitic neo-aristocratic capitalist class. They have gobbled up all the growth of the last 40 years globally.
@@flayrekapperz7862 Sigh...
Sure. That's an issue. But not the issue most think it is. There will always be wealth inequality because people, in general, are REALLY stupid and easy to con. The richest people in every era have NEVER been the most intelligent or qualified but they certainly knew (know) how to manipulate.
The fact that cryptocurrency is even a thing is a huge example of that. It creates pretty much zero wealth (negative wealth, in fact, when you factor in electricity and infrastructure costs). Rather, it just transfers wealth. A giant shell game.
I've just come from the TV video about South Korea. And now this video. Really a lot of things that you don't get to see directly about the country. Thanks for the video!
Actually, there are lots of young to middle aged Koreans moving to and working in South East Asia. Pay may not be as good, but the more laid-back lifestyle and low cost of living is very attractive indeed.
Họ chuyển đến Việt Nam và họ không muốn về Nam Triều Tiên. Nhiều người Nam Triều Tiên bị thuyên chuyển về Nam Triều Tiên họ đã cầu xin để được ở lại Việt Nam. Thu nhập của họ có thể cho họ có cuộc sống tốt ở Việt Nam. Môi trường ở Việt Nam không áp lực như ở Nam Triều Tiên!
@nguyenhieu1687 Yes, I travel to and visit foreign-owned companies in Indonesia constantly. A lot of them are Korean companies, and some of the Korean employees ended up staying in Indonesia running their own company or even open restaurants!
They told me they and their kids are 10 times happier here.
@@hyphen2612 The older generation, aged 35 and above, who have been living in Indonesia for 10 years or more, are generally quite pleasant. However, many of those under 30 who have recently moved can sometimes be a hassle or even openly racist. Not too long ago, there was a scandal in an online forum for Indonesian Korean expats, with remarks such as, 'Their skin is dark, the ugliest in Southeast Asia.'
@@nguyenhieu1687
그러기엔 베트남인들도 한국에 너무 많이 사는데..
@@ori5581 In fact, there are many Koreans living in Vietnam and they do not want to return. In addition to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Da Nang also have many Koreans. Vietnamese people go to Korea to work to earn money because they earn more money when they exchange it to Vietnamese currency. They earn more money when they work in Korea because of the exchange rate difference. Vietnamese people earn money in Korea to have a better life in Vietnam, unlike Koreans. Vietnamese people earn money in Korea for a few years and then return home.
South Korea has never been a capitalist country. It always been either a military dictatorship or centrally planned through chaebols. However, in all practical terms that is the definition of capitalism.
All East Asian countries are same with a group of people (government or corporations) staying power for a very long period that can make long term plans to get things done. Compare to the Philippines which end the Marcos dictatorship in the 1980s but the government literally hasn’t done anything for the country in those years.
Although ironically those long-term plans don't include literally living on as an ethnostate, having brought their populations to age and shrink with every generation since their initial Baby Boom blew out.
@@vrealzhou Philippines doesn't have Han classical philosophy as reference, so they fail like many Latin American countries. The most developed countries in Asia, adopted Han classical philosophy and culture, in Japanese it's 漢字文化圏. Even Japan's rapid industrialization was due to the Confucian educated Samurai's application of ancient Chinese wisdom. Unless Philippine adopt Han culture and learning they will not succeed.
Its the culture, the whole east democracy asian is not like the west. Do you see how China and Vietnam doing pretty well with communism? There is a pattern there
Why can't a military dictatorship be capitalist? Why do you think that Nazi Germany wasn't capitalist?
re: North Korea, let's be real it's been sanctioned so hard it can barely do any business at all with other countries. That would tank anyone, let alone a communist dictatorship. I don't think it's a fair communism vs capitalism comparison, and I love capitalism
NK is not communist. Go read the definition. There's literally never been a true communist nation. And NK has only been sanctioned because it wants to make its own rules and f everybody else.
I mean it is not even really communism, in the same way it call itself "Democratic People's Republic" but isn't any of those word.
Communism is all about the common ownership of the production... and I do not see a average joe owning whatever... and that without even mentioning communism is still a branch of socialism (or vis versa read it in the way you prefer) and let's say socialism and NK are like on the opposite.
And the funniest thing is communism in some more pushed/extreme form are closer to anarchy than any other political system (but people really do not understand anarchy and I do not blame them but I am not going to try and fail to write a full on political TLDR in a youtube comment section)
@@zblurth Who said capitalism had to be “democratic” in terms of governance? Look at Singapore or Saudi Arabia
@@JimGamingTV maybe I phrased it work, I did not want to make a point about capitalism, look at china for that too, I mean it is not because SK use the term communism that it IS communist in the same wya they name themself democratic when they are obviously not , and for communism that the thing with most of them, they use the name and part that interest them but not the actual philosophy
North Korea's (almost total) isolation is over since 2022 though. Russia quit that sanctions regime after 30 years.
The fact that we get free videos on TH-cam by Economics Explained is truly a gift; keeping education and knowledge alive. 🙏🏻🙏🏽🙏🤷
The success is simple, both korea and Taiwan went the same path, a period of military dictatorship strong man who made economic planning and guided the country through rapid development then handed the great economy to the Civilian government with full of politicians whos only goal is to enrich themselves as much as possible before the next election
Well, they also were anti-communist, so the west flooded them with investments (ignoring the reality of their own military dictatorships) while the others received sanctions and embargoes.
Those dictatorships were also anti-communist ones who eventually yielded to democracy, unlike communist ones who double down on oppression. That's why their growth has remained more stable compared to the more narrowly-focused top-heavy ones like China and Venezuela where a good shock could send their states toppling in popular apathy over a collapse of authority.
@@doujinflip you're just being too emotional to the point of lying. China is not collapsing, but looking at the US, the social breakdown is more symptomatic of a country about to fall.
Not only are we ended our development, we are doomed.
Korea’s fertility rate is a staggering 0.78, not many businesses attract large amount of capital, and no one (at least the decision and policy makers) is really interested in REAL technological innovation. Three main factors of economic growth are gone.
Bro relax it's not like you'll ever end up like Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela or Zimbabwe. You people always say this pessimistic stuff but the fact of the matter is South Korea will always remain a first world, developed country.
@@osmosis2808but at least it'll be quite doomed more than japan since it's fertillity rate is under 0.7
@osmosis2808 That takes people to propagate that forward, you have a Inverted pyramid for age demographics and you quickly get taken over.
@@osmosis2808 0.78 fertility rate means the population becomes more than half after every generation. Our country's population problem is INTENSE. You can actually FEEL the difference year by year when you take the Seoul metro subway and encounter with so many foreigners from middle Asia, China, and Southeast Asia speaking their own languages who came here to work in hard-laboring jobs and earn relatively large amount of income compared to people in their homelands. I'm not saying that's a problem, but many of us have some disbelief to especially Chinese people, who are mainly a communism party friend of our enemy nation DPRK.
그래 한국은 망했다. 곧 북한될거야~
Not mentioning the sanctions is unreasonable
i am loving these dual videos with this and context matters, i hope you keep them up :)
4:12
"Effectively stagnated" may be the greatest understatement I have ever heard.
It's a democratic country on the surface, but is a really, deeply flawed one. People tend to turn a blind eye on the atrocities done by the opposition party. What we need is a well-thought-out systemic improvement, not a subsequent series of power grabs and blame games.
its not democratic at all. you can just say that
The ruling party right now is the one that caused all the real problems in the first place. The opposition party at least have working brains to impeach our rogue president.
it’s all about the appearance on surface. South Korean has been like that for decades
Progress by denying demographic is an incomplete progress and will bite back later on. Japan, china, south korea taiwan, are example and are now experiencing slugish growth.
Because Liberalism is a sterilizing ideology. It's happening worldwide.
There are so many other factors than just Samsung and chaebols that’s straining the Korean economy. This video touches none of that such as household debt, real estate, culture or politics, and sounds like a video from every other youtube channel. Gotta do better than that for you to be worth my time
The channel is called economics explained not politics and culture explained
Dunno about anyone else, but I like when there's and EE video to accompany a Context Matters. Releasing the pair at the same time is so much more informative than a standalone.
So in reality the large monopolistic conglomerates were positive to productivity, by pushing workers to be better educated and more productive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As a korean I confirm that we live in the world george owell feared
The true 7th member of G7 instead of Canada.
Only reason Canada is in is due to natural resources and America
Canada now become india
@@blazer9547 good
no
Canada is actually a state of US.
In short, some indeed needed to get rich first, but NO ONE else did after that.
Having visited some cities that are very dense and very economically successful I now know that their living conditions are awful. Medium sized cities that are in their growth phase are best. You can still own a home and raise a family. Super cities are nation killers.
Has nothing to do with density and all to do with housing supply.
Montreal is the densest city in Canada and jobs pay the same as everywhere else, yet rents are cheaper, because they built enough housing for everyone.
Because rents are cheaper, people who want to move to the suburbs (you do you I guess) like Laval will also pay less for Single Family Homes.
Dallas or Jakarta
Vancouver 5.7k ppl/km², Montreal 4.8k /km². Rents high af in Vancouver, and veeeery big in Montreal as well
@@a.k8069 apartment living is not living at all.
Now I'm interested in a video about small businesses in the country.
Chips export controls to China is also going to hit Korea in the coming years
America subsidized billions to Korean chip foundries in the States.. China and Korea are different. The US want Korean companies there.
Excellent episode. Love the perspective.
If both countries would just kiss, their wackyness would even each other out, making them the greatest nation on the planet
Thanks for the excellent video.
Great video!
I love this kind of videos
The problem that SK has with the Chaebol system is that it is essentially a copy and paste of Japan's colonial system along with Japan's industrial policy at the time.
The only thing they didn't copy from Japan was that Japan was heavy handed with anti-trust and actively broke up companies getting too big or too vertically integrated, sure it still had/has dominate players in a certain field... but Sony doesn't make toothpaste (LG and Samsung do)
from the outside it may seem nice to investors but from the inside i question if the korean people are truly happy living in the their dystopia
Have personally worked with them, and based on statistics- theres a good chance theyre not..only time youd find them happy is to be able to rebel against their ridiculous social pressures and competition
한국의15살으로서 전적으로동의. 제가 지금 느끼기 로는. 심각한경쟁. 그로인한 사람들의 이기주의. 자연과 동떨어짐. 삶의의미 없음. 이정도일거같습니다. 저역시 우울증을 겪으면서 삶의의미를 게속 찾고있습니다. 하지만 한국은 이러한 문제만 해결돼면 굉장히 강한나라가될것입니다! 난 한국이그렇게되길 바란다 하지만역시 현실은 현실일거같다 끔찍한 정치권 갈등. 부정부패. 솔직히 말하면 15살인내가 보기에도 한국은 좀 이상하긴하다. 아무튼 앞으로 한국의 미래가어떻게될지 앞으로 엄청난 변화를 겪을거같다.
+ 한국은 밤에 보면 상당히 디스토피아적 사이버펑크 2077처럼보입니다. 굉장히 우울해보입니다. 밤에보면. 이점은 흥미롭다.
Nah if Korea is dystopia every other western countries are dystopia too lol what is this narrative Korea is only dystopia lol
@@Breakfastststst there's no other western nation with such "rat race" level of pressure and competition, from childhood to adulthood. No other western society so obsessed with looks, to the point cosmetic surgery is common place. No other western nation with few national companies that dwarf the rest of the country, in fact controlling it.
Japan would be the only nation to compare, but even them are not as far into dystopia that is South Korea.
Excellent video
China manufactures everything that South Korea can produce, and it’s cheaper. South Korea has developed a model of mass production and dumping, and China has also imitated this model.
It makes no difference if the products have a reputation for high risk. Chinese cars have zero attention to safety. I mean Japanese still outsell Korean ones due to their reputation for reliability. China still has LONG way to go to gain a reputation for quality.
@@Richard-xu8to That’s a stretch. The reputation is being suppressed by western media. People are aware of the quality china can and often does produce
@@Richard-xu8to it is based on the products you purchase which depends on the cost, China makes 1000$ DJI drones but also makes 10$ toy drone
Alemio’s roadmap is one of the most impressive I’ve seen-strong potential for growth!
6:03
Kumho Tires...really?
You couldn't choose any other company?
exactly haha
They're great tires!
What's wrong with them?
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ왜 그랭.. 그래도 광주에선 나름 대기업이라구 ㅠ
Kumho is a much bigger company than it seems. They own Asiana Airlines before selling off to Korean Air, international bus lines in multiple countires, are in construction of apartment buildings and financial sectors to name a few.
Edit: to add, I actually know a former chairman's son who ran Kumho. We used to hang out and have meals. He was a down to earth polite guy but no doubt his family was of substantial wealth and power in Korea.
Wow! South Korea's economic journey is mind-blowing - from post-war devastation to global powerhouse, yet now facing serious challenges with its mega-corporations. What a complex and fascinating economic transformation!
Great coverage, it does indeed feel like the end of an era with South Korea. I do agree it may have been on a bull run too long.
The biggest problems of S. Korea:
- Lowest birth rate 0.78 (to put in perspective USA is 1.66 and Japan 1.26)
- Horrible leadership where majority of the presidents end up in jail after their tenure
- Messed up education and pressure culture that creates high depression and suicide rate
- Somewhat corrupt and too-big of conglomerates that control/influence the economy and politics of Korea
- Real estate bubble that drives up prices of home units. (people just can't organically afford those over-abundant apartment units that are everywhere in Korea)
Granted, they have some good things going on:
- Rise of K-pop and K-Culture that is being consumed globally with rising popularity (which does have its own dark side)
- Korean people are extremely resilient
I hope they make it through with the current political and economic turmoil.
Kpop is horribly manufactured plastic culture, how is that a good thing?
문제점을 왤케 잘 요약했나 했더니 한국인이였구나
why you exclude the worst level suicide rate. Is not Korea's problem?
@@tigerion9275 i did mention it in my 3rd bullet.
this is the best summary of current SK issues.
however this is such a resilient country and will surely be back on track.
Very educational. Thank you for this video.
2010년에만 해도 해외사람들이 한국에 관심이 없었는데...... 이정도로 관심이 많아질줄이야....
Yeah, korea is getting many reputations in terms of negative aspects, whether you know it or not.
Seemed like a decent video, but the graph at 6:57 is off by a factor of 10.
Please make a video on the economy of Botswana.
This is called putting all your eggs in just a few big baskets.
이게 왜 이상하다고 생각하지? 영원히 성장할수는 없어요
That's the worst part about economics it's a never ending race.
China has the potential to be the greatest empire.
Because Capitalism is about perpetual growth
개인적으로 한국이 잘 사는 국가가 아니라 행복한 국가가 되면 좋겠습니다 예전 정 많은 한국 감성이 그립거든요
make a video on India's economy as well
Only question I have is what could the north been able to achieve if it didn’t have harsh sanctions against it? What would the economy have become if it didn’t have sanctions and blockades holding it down?
Not nearly as much as SK for sure. NK practices a system of 주체 (self sufficiency) and that's the primary reason for their initial economic problems, famine etc. Their modern problems of sanctions is due to KJU making nuclear threats etc
We'll never know but they do have more natural resources
Like dictatorship and lack of freedoms and strict education, it is very good at industrializing an economy extremely fast like Taiwan, S Korea, China, etc., but its not good for long term, sustainability AFTER becoming developed
...but it IS stable.
@@dannnsss8034 It just had a coup attempt, and is running into economic problems.
Are western liberal democracies monopolistic strangleholds on tech services, aviation, defense technology, and healthcare somehow better off for the rest of the world ?
East Asia has traditionally had authoritarian institutions in the past and used those very same political mechanisms to establish socially toxic competitive environments to their populations because they absolutely want those shares of industries ...
The thing is, when your country is one of the poorest in the world and lacks any resources, you can't really think of long-term problems as you would in the US or Europe.
Establishing an authoritarian government and focusing support on a few of the most competitive companies is the easiest and fastest way to gain prosperity.
Imagine you're living in one of the poorest nations right now. You see women selling their bodies to foreigners to survive and kids eating whatever looks edible from a pile of trash.
Would you really be that concerned about the problems you would have to face AFTER being developed?
They can switch to the future plan after industrialisation and got the resources to apply those plans. The western countries developed for more than 300 years but east Asia did in like 60 years. Compare to Philippines which democratised in the 1980s and it’s still one of the most backward countries in Asia today.
Samsung not fail until South Korea 🇰🇷 not fail………..
Use maps where what is land and what is sea is intuitive, please.
Running TH-cam advertisements and plugging a product in a short 14 minute presentation is pushing it a bit much
All we need is robots to get to the point they can be dressed up as humans and occasionally revolt, plus a little commercial neurotechnology, and we can cyberpunk it in Seoul!
If I were the Koreans, I would try something new. The old approach based on hierarchy, a certain cycle of events, and subordination will not take them anywhere further. It is time to introduce creative thinking, give people without formal education a chance, and pave new paths.
The martial law crisis really had nothing to do with economics. It was an attempt at a self-coup fuelled by some...questionable allegatlons made by fringe right-wing youtubers and a president and few key personnel who believed them. Trying to place more meaning in it than that is reductive at best and misleading at worst.
I can respect that a video created in response to an event could necessarily be deterministic but I'm quite confident that almost all respectable analyses of the self-coup does not try to tie the chaebols into it at all.
To most stable countries, a declaration of martial law is a huge deal. Your apathy only reinforces the perception of instability. For perspective, Trump toyed with the idea of martial law several times but was ultimately dissuaded due to the chaos it would cause. As someone from the U.S., I have firsthand experience with the challenges of an unstable government.
@@jrkc9218 I'm not trying to claim that the incident (and the subsequent ongoing political drama) is not a significant event. My point is that it has very little to do with the economic structure of Korea.
Does it point to instability and uncertainty, including economically? Of course. But is this video correct in linking it to the economic structure and development model of Korea? my opinion is decidedly no. My apathy is not in the fact that it happened, it is pointed towards the logic of this video.
Do you have a source we can read?
@@Chris-sm2uj source for which part?
@@jrkc9218To be fair, the West world today has Terrorism, violent protests, and many social risks. The martial law incident was an unexpected incident, but Korea, which handled it, showed that the system was operating normally in every way. I think that Korea's system is working more peacefully and democratically than most developed countries. Rather, I think that the anxiety factor of the Korean economy is more related to the low birth rate, aging population, unstable relationship with China, and U.S. protectionism
Literally everything revolve around Seoul. They need to decentralize first.
The war is between N.Korea-and the US.
Not S.Korea.
The Armistice was signed without S Korea present.
Interestingly, both North Korea and South Korea are dystopian in their own ways.
6:48
"English is a tool of success"
🤔
I agree. Someone should display that in the US. 😉
There were more advanced civilizations that did well without English
@@A-Ra1111 more advanced civilisation than modern world? You must be joking 😂
Engrish is a tool *for success
@@danfontaine8179Nope. Go look again.
在产业竞争愈演愈烈的今天,尹锡悦大统领深知中国在当前面临的产业升级的压力,毅然决然的发动了戒严打破韩国数十年来的政治默契使其国内产业政策完全失能,为我们送上产业大礼包,多么感人啊
The South Korea Situation Is Insane
morepegasus reference?
I think this video does a great job in explaining the circumstances in which South Korean economy grew, and how the economic environment that led to prosperity is now contributing to its stagnation now. However, I think this video is also dismissive of (or intentionally omits) the thoughtful, sometimes controversial, planning by the South Korean leaders and hard work and sacrifice by the working class over the years to compete on the global economic stage. This video seems to suggest that a lot of the economic growth "occurred" because the circumstances were ripe to produce such an event, and not because there were a lot of behind-the-scenes creative planning and hard work from the South Korean people and taking advantage of the cards that were dealt them.
Take, for example, the military presence in Korea (and Japan and Germany). The Americans put the bases in those places primarily to build a political wall or a buffer zone against the communist countries that were competing against the Western Allies after WW2. That the bases offered "protections and economic prosperity to the Koreans" were just a secondary effect of the America-first policy. People tend to forget that the Korean Armistice was signed without the presence of South Korean representative, and that Koreans did not want the country divided in two. Many South Koreans worked menial jobs in those American military bases to earn minimal wages, though American minimal wage translated to good money for Koreans back then. Those same people saved that money to send kids to college, buy land, etc. so that they can become more prosperous.
Also, this video seems to imply that the South Korean economic boom occurred with the government becoming more democratic in the late 80s and Deng Xiaoping's opening of the Chinese market; therefore, this video implies that those two countries became more prosperous because of ripe circumstances - more democratic and capitalistic market economy - but we only want to focus on Korea, not China, because Korea is a democracy. This is an oversimplification. I think the creator of the video actually misses the fact that the South Korean economic growth started in the 60s, soon after the end of Korean War with the Korean leaders at the time being hugely responsible for creating the roadmap for the next 20 years that led to the economic prosperity in the 80s. Yes, the leaders in South Korea in the 60s and 70s were often recognized as dictators, but they were also passionate about pulling the common man out of poverty, all the while dealing with North Korean sympathizers and communists in South Korea who wanted South Korea to reunite with the North as one communist country. They implemented many changes for Korea, which had been an agrarian society, to become an export-driven, western-style economy. Korea had no natural resources like oil or heavy metals that are critical for an industrial nation, so they had to come up with plans to import raw materials and create them into desirable products suitable for exports. Contrast this to a lot of the current middle income economies in Latin America and Southeast Asia that have many advantages that the Koreas did not, such as natural resources, the size of the country, pre-existing infrastructure (Korea was bombed through and through just a decade ago from the 60s), climate (Korea is frigid in the winter), among others.
I can keep going but you get my point.
@@nickkangster8475 hard work is circumstantial. If your hard work pays off, you will continue to work hard. If you live in a corrupt and dysfunctional society, your hard work will not be rewarded, and progress isn’t made.
ironically, the name of your new channel is also something very important missing here
Very good video.
When you make maps, please make the landmass darker than the ocean.
South Korea has their eyes set too much on internal competition. It’s such a shame. They grind so much, and they’re brilliant, dedicated, intelligent & beautiful. They certainly got grit. If only they start competiting with the world, shift their economy to sell abroad. For example, you can not use foreign cards to make a transaction online, which is SUCH a bummer because that right there is a national lost opportunity. Also they have too much investment tied up in real estate. If only those money were funneled into diversified portfolios in stocks.
SK really has political advantage. As a Finn I would choose Korean product over chinese any day. china is like russia to us.
Doesn’t matter, we live in a globalized world, I can guarantee you have multiple made in china items within your vicinity
What's problem with Russia or China?
@@dwyanewade528Um, the fact that Russians and Finns fought against each other in WW2.
Also, China is Russia's most important ally, and they have a pretty mutualistic relationship: Chinese export their products to Russia, and Russians now export a lot of oil, gas and minerals to China.
Have fun paying much more for everything just cos of your politics. Also SK doesn't even make as many things as Chi does.
It is weird how all these economic miracles come immediately after massive post-war US investment.
korea good luck
Twenty years ago, Koreans who decided to settle in Vietnam were considered unwise and lazy by other Koreans living in Korea. Nowadays, we can't stop them from coming over and more young Korean manage to speak Korean, English and Vietnamese in order to holding down jobs here.
South Korea's problems are the same as any 1st world economy with bleeding edge technology, there is never enough entrepreneurs putting their own time and money behind their ideas.
It is easy to use financial power to build up capital-intensive industries where competition is limited, but how do you get the garage startups that create new products and business models and become household names?
Where is South Korea's "Silicon Valley" with its hundreds of venture capitalists?
In fact, where are the 1st world's "Silicon Valleys" other than that one?
Venture capitalism is basically illegal there because the chaebols soak them up before they can flourish
The patriarchy and class hierarchy makes the job market so toxic. It's embedded into the culture, even in its language. Major social changes are needed as well.
I live in Australia, 10 years ago Korean cars were everywhere but today they are struggling, China has been overtaking Korea’s share of the Australian market.
0:33 I wanted to kindly bring to your attention that this naming is a subject of international dispute. In South Korea, it is referred to as the "East Sea," reflecting its historical and cultural significance. I would appreciate it if you could consider updating the map or labeling to reflect this nuance.
Korea's top-down style benefited the country in the 60s becuase the command economy led to rapid, focused economic growth. The same top-down style prevails today and stifles Korea's potential. You see it in Chaebols, education, a lack of independent thinking, and so many other aspects of daily life.
No matter what you say, there is no way I will agree that Korean products are better than Japanese. Is Hyundai better than Toyota? Samsung better than Sony? No way. The only thing Korea does better than Japan is semiconductors. Japan kinda give up long time ago because the low price of Korean products.
the korean car brands generally outcompete on value compared to japanese brands even if the japanese brands are more reliable, with sony it depends what products your comparing but samsung clears when it comes to anything that isnt professional level gear, a lot of japanese brands have been failing to innovate at the same level as other countries, theyre still high quality but theyre a generation behind, i think japan has tried for too long to only compete with itself.
@@Varockaare you korean?lol
I am South Korean... who F cares... everything is MADE IN CHINA nowadays. As long as it's not Made in China I fine with it.
And about cars... can you really classify Korea made and Japanese made when every small part is made in China from nuts and bolts?
@@Varocka So in terms of value, is Chinese car better than Korean and Japanese or even German one?
The miracle ended decades ago. Talk about a late video.
The US troops helping with Korean GDP is some wild imagination you are not even afraid of showing... They shop at their PX, and they rarely come out of their camps. Korea creates majority of GDP by export. Like.. Where do I eveb begin with these types of videos.. I rarely see any US soldiers in Korea. Like.. What?
Lonely troops keep the "ladies of the night" well fed
Part of the SOFA, status of forces agreement, is that they are to staff as much as feasible with Korean nationals.
These videos are always Bias honestly ,they don’t even hide it at this point ,how can US troop make a third world country into a first world country,no US troops can transform an economy into a first world country,it is ridiculous they even mention that .
0:38 - LOL at not talking about the HUGE economic sanctions against North Korea. South Korea would also be poor under the same sanctions.
a few company is carrying an entire country, does not look sustainable to me
i love the economic miracle of the working class person being incapable of affording their own life, let alone being able to raise children. almost like our idea of successful economies is based entirely on how much wealth the powerful can extract from the working people. north korea is way worse off due to americas massive bombing campaign during the korean war, and their refusal to bow to america after that bombing campaign. there are problems with north koreas rulers, but the reason the north remains such a dictatorship is how antagonistic america is. if an imaginary country destroyed your entire country would you care about the entirety of the policy positions of your leaders, or would you rally behind the leaders which promise to fight back against the invaders, even if they dont hold policy positions which are good for you? the problems in north korea stem from american intervention in the region, while the problems in south korea stem from... the exact same thing. american meddling damaged both halves of korea massively, the south merely accepted america running their economy so the wealthy could stay wealthy. the issues we are seeing come from american imperialism, on both sides of the korean border
And while being in autocracy controlled by one company Samsung I believe I don't know why they just don't name the country south Samsung Korea.
Way too much BS........................ The American troops station in SK, help the SK economy by spending their money there? seriously! LOL
Exactly
Yeah peak stupidity. And conveniently he forgets about the SAs on local population.
Yh it was weird because how is that helped to transform a country into a first world economy?,I don’t get it why they can’t just be bias .