Why South Korea's Seniors Are So Poor
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- Amongst the 38 OECD nations, South Korea has the highest rate of elder poverty. 46% of their citizens aged 65 or over live in relative poverty.
This rate is unusually high, almost an outlier. The next highest rates belong to Estonia and Latvia, with Lithuania and Mexico next. Japan, a fellow aging East Asian economy, is at 20%. And the OECD average is about 12-13%.
Korea is one of the world's richest and most advanced countries. Their gadgets are sleek and their movies are slick. Korean history is deeply steeped in Confucian traditions, where respecting the elderly is paramount. So how did this happen?
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“This is no way of treating the people who built the country to what it is now”
I’m 37yr old Korean and I will never forget this video. Thank you for sharing valuable information, as always.
That is EXACTLY what I've been saying for years. They must feel so betrayed and disposed of by the country, when they had spent decades living and working in absolutely horrifying conditions in hopes that, if they work hard, Korea will become wealthy. I think of the Korean elderly daily.
They did a job and were compensated for their labour I don't see a reason why the next generation has to be burdened by the previous generation's inability to fund their retirement.
@@justicedemocrat9357 I agree. It’s just unfortunate that elder poverty here is much worse than Japan. It’s not something to celebrate about.
@@justicedemocrat9357 ok boomer... I'm sure you're under 30 but, I stand by the ok boomer statement based solely on the content of your comment......
@@saeedhossain6099 what are you babbling about?
I find it strange that people reached out to you and told you that poverty amongst elders were not a problem and that you should stop reading "non-Korean" news. I was an exchange student in SK back in 2018 and knew next to nothing about the country, yet one of the first things that I learned from my teachers and fellow students was that SK had the highest % of senior poverty and senior suicide rate in the developed world. So it's not like it's a secret.
I think some people didn't like their national issue is being discussed and pointed by outsiders and non-citizens, thinking only citizens have the right to discuss such things.
Given the open world and their own fame, they just had to accept it instead of being bitter about outside people discussing it.
Besides what Wan R said, the issue has been politicized and politicized especially seriously by the conservative party ever since the 2016 fall of the Park administration, the rise of the progressive party, and the multiple rebranding of the conservative party (they literally changed their name multiple times) to cast off the corrupted image of the 2016 conservative party.
Some other politicized issues include:
- Housing issue
- Covid-19 dangers & restrictions
- Covid-19 vaccine importations & trust in vaccines
- welfare for disabled
- welfare for one-parent households
- welfare for children
- gender equality
- regional hostilities & stereotyping
- generational differences
- labor & employment rights
- environmental rights & EU taxonomy
- history (particularly that of past dictators, democracy-related protests & suppressions)
and so on.
I mean you just have to walk a few miles on the street and you see them everywhere. Broke my heart....
The use of “everyday Kim” makes me think that it wasn’t a person of Korean origin sending that note. It’s like using “every Chan” to discuss Chinese/Taiwanese topics. Instant giveaway.
Elder poverty is not just South Korea,,it's Worldwide problem,,many westerners don't save enough for old age,Australia and my country New Zealand.. many are only living week to week.
one of the major factors that's stopping young Koreans to provide sufficient financial support to the elderly is the rapidly rising cost of living. In SK, everything is concentrated in Seoul, the best companies, the best colleges, the best health care systems, the best infrastructures and so on. so when young Koreans graduate from colleges, everyone crams into Seoul, with large population, housing price and rents become crazy expensive. after paying housing expensive and other living expensive such as food, clothe and travel, young people barely have anything left, let alone supporting the elderly. one of Pres. Moon Jae-in's biggest campaign promise was to control the rising housing cost in Korea, but he didn't do a whole lot, and now he is no longer president. XD
Similar thing is in Russia: life tends to concentrate in big cities, so real estate prices are sky high there. But I think the problem is mostly in people's minds. They still think the life is only worth living when you live in Moscow, but I live 20 km off the city limits and still in only an hour from the center of Moscow because of suburban electric train.
Korean train system is at least as good as ours, I believe, so why don't that student guys notice the possibility to live in suburbs and still be able to enjoy all of the capital city stuff?
urbanization occurs everywhere, its hard to name a place without it
Only supreme leader can solve this problem.
You know that, unlike the usa, South Korea has a one-term limit on presidency? Moon cannot seek re-election by the constitution. Also, as of now, Moon is still the president. The newly elected Yoon will swear in about a month later.
He was pretty bad at getting anything done seems likr 🥶
As a South Korean, I can attest that elder poverty is a very REAL Problem. The issues pointed out in squid game are very real as well. Perhaps a bit dramatized in the show, but real nevertheless.
But the concept of poverty used here is relative assessment of poverty tho...do you even understand what it means?
maybe Covid could have helped, but SK missed the chance to take the America route.
No , there is totally No problem in South Korea .
All Koreans are millionaires
@@starjacklyn Yes but with the rising cost of living. Relative poverty is very similar to the expected definition of poverty. They earn less that half of the average income of the population mean you are vulnerable when rent or food spike in price. It is not what I call a pleasant situation to be into.
@@starjacklyn Yeah I know they took the average which is manipulative, in general in statistic it is better to take the median because the average get pumped up by extremes . In this case the super riches . What it really shows is that there are insane extremes inside the society. If we take UN absolute numbers most of them would end up properly from this perspektive in the green but that on the other side wouldn't take into account the higher lifting expensive you would have as an Korean (e.g housing market)
I lived in korea for 2 years and yes I've seen poor old people first hand. They are usually selling vegetables in the streets or collecting cardboard to recycle for a small sum of money, maybe 5/6 dollars a day. My regret was not buying more of their vegetables when I was there instead of going to a supermarket.
I lived in South Korea for a year, and yes the street food vendors were all operated by elderly women. Very nice and the food was tasty, but yeah the competition between them was stiff and their prices were quite low.
because all the money is in North Korea and China .
the two richest countries in the World .
@@dangda-ww7de Philippins richest.
JAPAN's Seniors Are A LOT Worse compared to Korean Seniors!~ Many Japanese elderly are
on the street and homeless.
⚫Senior Citizens in Japan Are Committing Crimes Because They Want to Go to Jail--BBC NEWS
⚫Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women-- Bloomberg
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant, the record number of crimes committed by senior citizens-a growing problem sparked by poverty and an aging society.
Asianometry --This Chinese guy never talk about their bloody corruptions in Taiwan and horrible human right violations in China, instead pick on outdated old news about Korean seniors and corruption, lol
Look at what's going on Shanghai RIGHT NOW, they treating their own people like animals. ⚫⚫
Korea has lots of granny prostitutes.
My mom who is Korean senior has been living in US over 20 years says she is so blessed to live in the States. She goes SSA, senior housing, food subsidies and medical coverage. That’s why we pay high taxes
Lived in Seoul for 2 years back in 2003 and it was clear the disparity back then. I always found the elderly there more humble and kind than the younger generation too
I used to work in Korea as a Teacher and man it is a rampant problem. I don't know why you have some people saying Korea's older population is fine but there's just so many elderly people working to throw out garbage on the streets or selling pretty random and non-essential stuff on the stairs going down to the subways. I know asking students their thoughts on the matter is kind of meaningless as they don't have a full grasp of the gravity of the situation but I've asked if having our elderly pick up garbage on the streets is a good thing and quite a few of them did say at least they get to work. Just kinda caught me off guard there. It made me realize that they do not care about the elderly even though, ironically, on the surface level, they do try to respect for their elders.
I don't know when you taught in Korea but I was there in the mid seventies. The people worked and studied hard but Korea was very poor. Fifty years of Japanese occupation and the Korean war devastated the country. What breaks my heart is that I am now 70 and those people I knew that worked so hard to build the Korean economic miracle have had the cost of living rise outstrip anything they had for retirement. They made their main money before the economic boom. So though they were frugal there was not that much to save. They poured a lot of what they made into their children's education, too.
So it's okay if young people pick up garbage but in your mind it's not okay for old people to pick up garbage?
@@angelachouinard4581 @Angela Chouinard Hey yeah I taught in mid 2010s. Wow that's something I didn't think about. Yes they did pave the way for their children but are getting thrown aside. It really sucks! Thanks for sharing your story!
@@justicedemocrat9357 you've lost the point of my post. I never said it's wrong for the elderly to pick up garbage. I said that Korean society has forced its elderly to pick up menial jobs like garbage pickup in order to stay alive. There is no such thing as old age security in Korea.
@@justicedemocrat9357I lived and worked in Korea for eight years. Someone must pick up the trash and sweep the streets. All Koreans take pride in their country. Most Korean take pride in the area they live.
Asked someone you know who's 80 y.o. was it easier to bend down when were twenty or eighty. When you're 60, 70 or 80 you will know for sure.
No American, especially young pups, works as hard as a Koreans. ❤💯
You must be a snotty-nosed kid who doesn't have a clue how the world works.
The older Korean generation reached their peak earning capacity at a time when Korea was still very poor and wages were low and now, even if their children support them or they have a job, wages have not risen as fast as the cost of living.
JAPAN's Seniors Are A LOT Worse compared to Korean Seniors!~ Many Japanese elderly are
on the street and homeless.
⚫Senior Citizens in Japan Are Committing Crimes Because They Want to Go to Jail--BBC NEWS
⚫Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women-- Bloomberg
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant, the record number of crimes committed by senior citizens-a growing problem sparked by poverty and an aging society.
Thank you for pointing this out Matt. When i was in Korea in the mid seventies Korea was still poor. People don't realize how fast the Korean economic rise happened. It left people my age (70) behind.
Children in south korea need to stop expecting financial support for university education and marriage so that people in their 60s could save for their retirement .
The problem is their pension fund cannot keep up. Korea's GDP per capita was only less than US$250 in 1969 & above US$30,000 now. So whatever savings, even high %, that these elderly during their prime, would not be sufficient for today's spending. Normal interests rates would not be able to make up the difference.
Singapore's CPF, (401k like pension fund) also face this issue. However Singapore had anticipated this and encouraged home ownership, especially for lower income through HDB. This way they could share the economic growth & success of the country. A HDB flat bought in 1970s at US$20k could worth US$500k today, providing good means of retirement fund.... either through downgrade of house or reverse-mortgage (LBS). That's why Singapore elderly are often call themselves, asset rich, cash poor. This could also encourage their children or relatives to take care of them in hope to inherit these assets.
Children who vanish for years suddenly appear when they heard you got cancer.
@Francisco III J Dy The HDB employs leasehold (99 years) that is quite common approach also for private housing. The Reverse mortgage is offered by the government under Leased Buyback Scheme (LBS) allowing owners to sell back last decades of HDB lease, monetize their asset for retirement. As social housing, HDB is unique that is sold without land price, only building costs. That's why it's appreciation when resold on open market after MOP.
As for depreciation value of older flats nearing end of lease would be expected and would expect the value to gradually reduce according to rental tenure cost with discount. As this is fully anticipated, could be managed.
Lastly the 99 years leased should last 2 generations for most families. There would be different options to choose for their residual home asset / tenure.
Hate to tell you, but the HDB is not a solution to this. Lease decay will lead to depreciation, while house prices are also heading up.
JAPAN's Seniors Are A LOT Worse compared to Korean Seniors!~ Many Japanese elderly are
on the street and homeless.
⚫Senior Citizens in Japan Are Committing Crimes Because They Want to Go to Jail--BBC NEWS
⚫Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women-- Bloomberg
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant, the record number of crimes committed by senior citizens-a growing problem sparked by poverty and an aging society.
@Francisco III J Dy What's reality now in Singapore that the flats outlive their initial buyers. Initially bought around 25 years old, would be around 65 years old (retirement age) using 39 years and remaining 60 years lease. Last 30 years lease sold back to the government at present prices (Lease Buyback Scheme) which goes into CPF and pay out as an annuity (CPF Life) and person could still stay for next 30 years until 95 years old. Of course other option is to sell and downgrade.
And of course the asset price will start to depreciate as lease will end, so far not yet experienced but expected. These owners are usually 2nd or 3rd owners already, usually at their prime age and not surprised of depreciating value. This would be very similar to value of cars in Singapore. At least for first owner, HDB offers good retirement option.
This is also why Korea has the No.1 suicide rate. But as a Korean woman, I will neither have a baby nor marry only to serve the parents in law like some maid. I will not marry only to do many times more of house chores and child rearing. I will not give birth to a child as long as it is an easy reason to fire me at work. As long as Korean men and their parents expect unfair customs and the government ignores how much easily women get fired after having a child, both the marriage rate and birth rate will drop even below half of the population. The government and men think the reason of the low birth rate is due to the money. But no. It is how the women get treated both at work and inside the family.
This. Social reform, starting with changing attitudes wrt gender, would create a lot of necessary opportunities.
No one ever asks you for getting baby. Enjoy your life.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 제도적 장치가 얼마나 많이 발전해왔는데 그런 소리를 함? 그리고 맞벌이 하면 공동으로 분담해서 집안일 하는게 당연한거고, 남편만 돈 벌면 여자가 집안일 하는게 당연한거 아님? 얼마나 구시대적인 사고를 가지고 있으면 아직도 한국이 80년대라고 취급하냐
Another k-feminsts infests her way to the network, i don't blame her. What she is saying is pretty acurate and reasonable. But her attitude of culping "men" is kinda sad to watch
This breaks my heart. My mother is Korean, I was born in Korea and was raised in the US. From as far back as I can remember I was taught the Korean customs and was informed as the eldest it would be my job to take care of my mother/father in old age. I have held true to my mothers teaching and moved my parents in with my family while my spouse and I. It hasn’t been easy, you make sacrifices for your parents. But I believe it’s my duty as a good daughter to provide for my parents in their old age as they made so many sacrifices for us when we were young.
Not an easy thing to do, but surely the right thing. Very commendable.
according to my religion, islam....it is one of the most rewarding thing from God, is to take care our parents at old ages..as they did take care of us when we were small....indeed God'mercy lies upon parents' mercy and God's anger lies upon parents' anger...we must love our children dearly...that's what we pray God to do the same thing to our parents...
Its interesting that they were able to make such large cuts to the pensions. In the US the older people are the ones with the highest voting turn out, so its very difficult to touch their benefits
I think it's (partially) because older populations are conservative voters who loves neo-liberal policies. Most elderly people still believes that communism is a huge threat to democracy. The right wing party use this to get huge support from people 60+. The center-left party wanted to implement radical changes like basic income, but the older population rejected the notion, calling it a "communist policy".
it is because the government had no choice. During the Asian financial crisis, it was bankrupt. Also, they didn't think the population demographic was going to be a big issue (to be frank, no economist could concretely explain why developed countries had a declining birthrates at the time) as it is now.
It's fairly obvious to us now. If you live in a farm, the more kids you have the more helping hands for everyday farm work. You live in a shoebox with a rapidly industrialized economy that requires education, and your children become a burden.
There is no solution for the elderly poverty rate in Korea as its demographic merely spells doom for their future. They can either decide to tax the shit out of the younger population which is rapidly shrinking, or let the pension program run out of money. Their shrinking demographic means that they have to rely on exports, competing against rapidly developing neighboring nations while the US no longer cares to sustain globalization. Either way it is a spiral of decline for Korea. Japan is the only east Asian country that has been able to escape their doom, for now. The best case scenario for Korea when its population collapses is to sustain its economy at a Japanese level of growth (0% average growth for the past 30 years), and that is not a high mark.
@@winterkitten I don't disagree with the things they think about government.
However the landed white ruling class which constitutes around 2/3rds to 3/4ths of them are too powerful of a constituency for the government to eliminate benefits outright.
For them it's only "communism" if it benefits the non-white classes. That is why white communities would rather close a public pool than to share it with non-white populations (as they did in the 60s).
@@winterkitten They are not center left they are far left
When you read the university education rate is that low you know the chance of people making a correct choice is slim
Retirement is something I have always explained to my mom. I sent her to a vocational school and now she works as a hospital clerk for over 5 years. Still, she does not save for her retirement no matter how much I explain it to her. She spends more than she earns and I mostly end up paying her debt off. She has a very ancient belief system. I told her what if I die before her? No one will look after her. This is also the same reason why I fund my own retirement plan and pay insurance for my kids. If I die when they're still young, they will still have their college fund at the very least.
Yeesh
Are you from South Korea? I have seen that many Asian countries (like Korea and Japan) the pension is more or less fully private? Is there a public pension available and usually how much does it contribute to the overall income?
I'm curious since from European perspective this is somewhat strange since the private insurance is "optional" although many contribute. Everyone can rely on guaranteed public pension (first pillar) even with few years of contribution.
Right now about 17% of my salary is deduced for the social security contributions for the public pension fund and I can expect a pension of about 60% of my average salary. The only supplementary pension I have is what my employer is paying, about 5% of salary, for the occupational pension (second pillar) in a managed investment fund.
A video exploring that mandatory retirement in their 50s might be interesting
Being a Korean is a really tough! They have been working very hard in order to make their life wealthier and happier after the Korean War. Thanks to their strenuous efforts, retirees have to live from hand to mouth. In addition, Korean people are facing a military threat from hostile neighbor, and young Korean people have to enter military service. Harsh entrance examination race also cast dark shadow on young Koreans. In spite of their great efforts, a lot of Korean people cannot enjoy happiness, and no wonder some Korean people call their nation as "Hell Chosun".
This really breaks my heart.
I was in the U.S. Army, station in South Korea way back in 1968, during the Pueblo crisis.
The South Korean elders are the survivors ravaged by 2 wars (World War II/Korean War).
South Korea seemed hopelessly impoverished. Few to no paved roads outside of the cities, and only one train track connecting
Seoul to Busan.
I am a witness to the hard laboring, learning that made South Korea one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
I have nothing but respect for South Koreans greatest generation. ❤❤❤❤❤
This has to be solved by the Korean government perhaps some sort of tax on the Chabol. In my IT industry in the US it is the same. Large corporations use employees until their early to mid fifties in which case they are encouraged to leave by various means, early retirement, cash bonuses etc. Some of these companies actually take out life insurance policies on these people knowing they will die soon of common health issues obtained by working for these companies. There is not much of a safety net for them or their families either.
But the technology industry in US usually pay pretty good compared to other field. But Korean companies or most asian companies don't pay as much. So tech people in US will have the mean to invest but not so much for Asian. Even able to afford to buy a flat to live is major headache.
@@Theoryofcatsndogs i think it is only a select few silicon valley tech companies ithat pay well, others pay average market salaries.
@@ayush.kumar.13907 a select few Silicon Valley companies pay significantly over market rate (think $300-400k/yr range for senior engineers), while the rest pay US market rate which is still like $120-250k/yr for senior engineers, so still significantly higher than other industries and many other countries regardless of the company…
I think SK needs to decentralize companies, factories, offices and governmental offices around korea, instead of large city seoul
@@user-si5vp6ud1w These companies are too big to touch. Nope of the big CEO who sent to jail serve the full sentence. They all got early release for "national interest"
One thing not mentioned is the relatively higher prevalence of lookism and ageism in Korean society. Potential employees are often not hired because they are not attractive enough or not young enough.
Relative to where?
The jobs you mentioned elderly Koreans do are actually the same exact jobs you will find seniors doing in Japan as well. It's like these countries have a certain unwritten rule that certain jobs are for elderly, certain jobs are for young women, and certain jobs are for the working mother.
Big business idea: sell starter packs for them
JAPAN's Seniors Are A LOT Worse compared to Korean Seniors!~ Many Japanese elderly are
on the street and homeless.
⚫Senior Citizens in Japan Are Committing Crimes Because They Want to Go to Jail--BBC NEWS
⚫Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women-- Bloomberg
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant, the record number of crimes committed by senior citizens-a growing problem sparked by poverty and an aging society.
Asianometry --This Chinese guy never talk about their bloody corruptions in Taiwan and horrible human right violations in China, instead pick on outdated old news about Korean seniors and corruption, lol
Look at what's going on Shanghai RIGHT NOW, they treating their own people like animals. ⚫⚫
Ya but they probably have running water I'm hoping? And heating in the winter? It's gets so cold here. 🥶
then why korea pay shittier to old people than Japan?
I'm generally not interested in videos that talk about the economy or financial implications, but I want to thank you for your educational videos. I've already watched a few and I truly appreciate your videos. They are very well researched and listening to you talk about these topics has been very eye-opening and even inspiring in an odd way. Thank you for helping to illuminate the world!
Living in Korea, you see a lot of kids living at home with their parents well into their 30s with no stable job etc. It seems parents pamper their precious single child instead of putting away for their own funds for retirement.
It's also often expected that the groom's parents will buy him an apartment/house when he gets married... Quite a ridiculous expense.
I was in Korea for a year last year, and it was alarming to see how drastic the age of the population shifted once you left the city. Literally you will see all young people in the city and then after a few bus stops, once you leave the main centers, you only see old people. This shift was drastic in Cheonan and Daejeon (so cities farther away from Seoul), and somewhat noticeable in Seoul. Basically, you will only see old people once you leave the main and most populous cities; and I was shocked. Literally, having a relationship in Korea is a luxury because everyone is either busy studying or working and/or don't have enough money to afford one.
Isaac Ahn Agree. I have never seen more single people anywhere than in SK.
How much do korean hookers cost?
@@eddenoy321 how can you tell a person is single by seeing a person ? In South Korea single households is about 33 %. Just to compare this number in Denmark ( which you probably do not know where is ) the rate is about 50 %.
Goodness Christ you are one of these 2 dimensional people.
It is so sad that only rich people can afford love, or if you’re a six feet tall hot guy in Korea. That works too
When you go to Korea, that is one of the things that stands out. Very elderly people working and selling things by the side of the road. As well generally quite a few drunk elders in public. I can’t say for sure that is a correlation, but alcohol is a known coping mechanism.
It's really simple. SK's goal in 70s was to have 3 meals a day. The economy grew fast, but in the process, older generations did not have a chance to stack wealth. Because they didnt have wealth.
Legit broke my heart to see the elderly working. I honestly thought they were just volunteering until my friend told me they worked because they needed it
Thank you for shedding light on this topic.
This channel is so good, I'm always surprised by the high quality.
Thank you for not being shy to talk and educate others about these issue.
I live in korea and I live in a high rise apartment tower... the people across the street (like just a few meters) do not have running water. I see so many little ladies picking cardboard out of trash and men farming etc... it breaks my heart. Some people do love to work but some must work and that hurts.
Great research. Thank you.
This is an issue largely unique to the generation of Koreans borne before the Korean War; Korean baby boomer generation borne after the Korean War is generally the first generation in Korean history to have industrial/global middle class jobs. Other OECD economies that have been industrialized/developed economies for many generations typically see the older generations having more accumulated wealth than younger generations; in South Korea, the baby boomer generation (borne after the Korean War) is vastly wealthier than the older generation.
Pension issue is simple: a country has to tax in order to provide for public pensions for the elderly population, and Korea has a much lower tax rate for insurance/social security than most other OECD economies. Given how Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world (~0.8 per couple), we can see how this is a very difficult choice.
I love this rational, positive statement comment of yours
This is an excellent video and very helpful. It is my dream to help support the elderly in Korea. I hope to give you a positive update within the year.
Good info. Thanks for the info.
I want to see some contents about Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service scandal and the recent rumor that the yield rate of some flagship chips being 35% compared to TSMC’s 70%.
Dylan Patel would be far better for that than me
@@Asianometry Dylan Patel is a clown, you do far better work than him. If you watch Dylan’s twitter, he types like trump and uses filler words to often.
“This is very huge”
“Boom win for nvidia #1 as always”
Just a cringe guy. We want you 😌
Problem is breaking of family system. Staying together reduces cost of all in family. And elderly helps in taking care of family. So it would help in taking care of young as well which could help further increase birth rates.
Also loneliness is big problem in elderly reported by studies in Britian.
Understandable, elderly are useless now.
@@alienelephant4721 It depends. My great grandfather could walk 4-5 kms even when he was 100 . Today's youth will find walking this distance tiring. With advent of technology our physical and mental capabilities have reduced drastically
@@bapparawal2457 Hopefully, if global warming don't kill us all.
JAPAN's Seniors Are A LOT Worse compared to Korean Seniors!~ Many Japanese elderly are
on the street and homeless.
⚫Senior Citizens in Japan Are Committing Crimes Because They Want to Go to Jail--BBC NEWS
⚫Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women-- Bloomberg
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant, the record number of crimes committed by senior citizens-a growing problem sparked by poverty and an aging society.
Asianometry --This Chinese guy never talk about their bloody corruptions in Taiwan and horrible human right violations in China, instead pick on outdated old news about Korean seniors and corruption, lol
Look at what's going on Shanghai RIGHT NOW, they treating their own people like animals. ⚫⚫
This is what a lack of a social safety net looks like. Eastern Asia followed America into the capitalist dystopia, where a few are rich, the majority work endlessly to stay afloat, the poor are hated and the old are forgotten.
America was doing well until the late 80s with Reaganomics.
Very informative and eye opening. Thank you.
Very interesting video, TY for creating it
The problem with confucian tradition is that it's not progressive enough to keep up with the changing modern industrialized world
Confucius lived in a different Era. He could not have expected that there would be a boomer generation followed by a major shrinking of population
Confucianism is a 2000 years old conservative ideology, I doubt it can be reformed
European had that mentality as well, so I believe it's not about confucianism but the way individualism has grown during the post-WW2 consumerism era.
I think the problem is not that Confucian tradition has not keep up with the changing world fast enough. Respecting and taking care of your own parents is almost always a good thing to do in any society.
But that many of these people and government did not start their retirement preparation soon enough when they enjoy the demographic dividend , and the society relied too heavily on the idea that their children would feed or take care of them, is in my opinion the main problem. Being confucian does not mean you do not prepare for your future or save your money, after all.
And hey, Confucius was a teacher and philosopher, but never an economist. He taught people how to treat others with love and care, but not interest theory or how inflation erodes elderly's purchasing power. He could not have expected that there would be any governments taking his ideas as excuses not to prepare for the future of its people (shrug).
And in my second thought, as mentioned in the video, and probably mentioned in other comments, many South Koreans did not have enough money and time to prepare for their elderly life, even if they attempted.
@@NicolasChanCSY I agree with the last point, but not the first point.
Also, I have something to add about Confucius not being progressive: that's right. He said that we should hear a dog barking in the neighbouring village, but never see it. His ideal life was in the mountains, self-sufficient, ignorant of what's going on around in the world.
Different religions are different. Shia Islam is all about science, development, and contribution to society. Even mystics like the AyatOllahs are like that. Jews also like science, I believe.
@@Moses_VII You clearly know nothing about Confucius. Even in his own life, he spent 20 years of his life wandering the warring states to try and push his reformist agenda. That's not the behaviour of a man who just wants to be ignorant and stay isolated from the world.
It is No Way to treat the generation that has sacrificed their lives for todays adults. The education system focuses on getting ahead, not on how to live. Singapore seems to try to change this.
Thank you for bringing this topic to attention. 👍
thanks for an enlightening article.
there r lots of issues affecting our society.
thanks for pointing out this one.
Good analysis. In addition to the structural factors you mentioned, I do think the hyper-competitive culture which lead to its over performance in some sectors is the underlying cause behind such imbalances. GDPs look nice, on paper.
I used to joke that that culture overdoes everything, both good and bad. Perhaps a necessary survival instinct from its geostrategic location and post-War recovery phase (the current seniors having sacrificed the most) but it does need to socially liberalize further for its own good, even if the rate of growth flattens.
Sinkie here......It's ironic cause "welfare" and govt handouts is deeply frowned upon in Asian especially East Asian societies...this problem is not unique to South Korea but also in other East Asian countries like Hong Kong and Singapore,in Singapore nearly 68% of the elderly population still participate in the workforce often in dirty menial labour and low paying jobs.....where the wages can almost be considered exploitative.
Govts chooses to turn a blind eye,instead spewing meaningless platitudes and saying people should be more self reliant and not rely on others......as the government is unwilling to take on the burden and responsibility of looking after the elderly poor whom have sacrificed much of their lives in building the foundations of the prosperity and success of the nation,wanting to keep tax rates as low as possible in order to keep the country competitive and attractive to the wealthy and the elite corporations and billionaires seeking to
These countries dont have a guaranteed basic minimum wage?
Smart and grabbing analysis. Thanks
Great video.
I Live in korea. I have live here since 2002. There are A LOT of older people in poverty now. A lot fewer are living with their kids now than before. Every day I watch 3 very old women and 2 very old men, "very small town area" that cant even fully stand up, they are permanently hunched. Ride around on very old tricycles picking up cardboard boxes. They are out there every day doing it as its their main form of income. Often they are wearing plastic bags on their feet instead of shoes. You can tell from their clothes they are barely making ends meet.
Note I live in an area just outside of the highest paying city in my province. This isnt even talking about low income areas like around Dong-Daegu station, or around Busan station etc where many homeless people hang around.
A video on the Australian industry superannuation scheme may be worthwhile. It is reducing the need for people to rely on the government's old-age pension. However, the funds control a huge and growing amount of money and are Australia's largest investors and a source of funds for privately-held infrastructure.
It's a good alternative, but there are pitholes that needed to be watched out and people need to watch out for attempts to undermine to the current legislations. Superannuation have suffered in the past, the one during the Global Financial Crisis 2008 was one example while every year a few handfuls of funds failed ATO's performance tests. The nature of it can make it quite volatile and the most conservative option generally don't provide returns that weathers year-to-year inflation rate.
An example of attempts to undermine the government legislation: The Royal Commission into the Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry came back 3 years ago, one of the findings was that some funds were using members monies to pay for court fines handed to them due to their financial misconducts (eg. charging fees on members more than they should've been charged). This practice of using investor's money for their fines was then on made illegal so those same funds hit back and received approval from court to charge their members additional fee to go into their 'fine funds' without disclosing what would happen to the fund pool if it was unused and who they would go to. These funds don't exactly charge the lowest admin fees neither they were the highest performers. What a joke.
No wonder that in Kdramas there is always an elderly who is scrapping for paper and garbage or does other odd jobs for a few pennies. And live in some small old houses where they die alone and forgotten.
And what is worse is that the young is always depicted as having some stereotypical concepts that those elderly ended up that way because they haven't studied. I really hope this is not the reality. Because the elderly lived in a different environment, both economically and socially. Some maybe even caught the times of war and went through difficulties. The mess of society in which the youth is living and the pressure they have to stand in regards to their academics is not the norm which every generation had to face.
I legit saw those "explaination" done by korean on numerous video about this phenomenon on less serious channels. Like bro all your early life you had to compete and study to death just so you can say "no you don't understand, the old people are poor cus SK had developed so fast and they have no skill or education fitted to the market"
This will be the situation in the U.K. in 10 years time. The private pensions available are pretty useless unless you are a millionaire. They govt is increasing the increasing the starting age you can draw state pensions and, after splurging cash on baby boomers, I expect the government to reduce benefits long term.
The Korean national pension system was established in the 1980s and payout depends 100% on how much you contributed. There are many elderly people who did not contribute to the pension plan are only eligible for basic income payment, but no national pension payments.
Korea can increase the basic payment scheme for elderly similar to U.S. social security levels but that would entail massive goverment debt. There would be strong resistance to increasing national debt in Korea above current levels.
Korean here. If things keep on going the way they do, which they will, we are fucked.
I'm curious as to what the property ownership norms are in Korea. In the UK retiree's also take a significant income hit, however most by this point have paid off their car/mortgage and therefore have lower costs each year than when they were working which offsets this. Is this not the case in other countries?
As an economist, I think South Korean government should increase its welfare spending if it wants to fix these issues. Workers should be required to pay higher rate out of their salary towards public pension payments to compensate the change in culture towards more Western type of culture, where individuals and government pays most of the retirement costs, not the children. South Korea also has a very low VAT rate of 10 %, hiking this to European levels (18 to 27 %) would help the government finance higher welfare benefits with minimal cost on economic growth, since VAT is considered a pretty neutral form of taxation. It might also make people more willing to take risks, like having children, when there is always a decent amount of public welfare to support an individual in need.
There's still the fundamental problem of having a higher ratio of elderly to support. On the extreme, if you had 1 worker for every 1 elderly person on public pension, you could only raise the income of the elderly to the median by dividing the median income in half (take half of every paycheck as a pension tax).
With 20% of the population being elderly, or 13% or whatever, you are still going to lower the median income by some amount when you raise paycheck taxes.
Yes only if we didnt have" the North" to take care of, reduce our pointless army payments like other European country. Sadly, thats not the case
This is so shocking. I would have never expected even those first few stats. Geez.
In Japan, the inflation rate has remained low for a long time, and prices are stable, making it a good place to live for old people with savings. Not good for the economy, though.
It`s a matter of relativity. Japanese elders could live a relatively better life if compared with Korean counterparts, but a lot of younger Japanese have a pessimistic view about their retirement life due to an aging society of fewer children. They are concered whether they could receive enough pension after retirement.
While it is not good for the economy in terms of them running the country on deficit, the world doesn't have to keep growing and most other countries will eventually reach equilibrium like Japan when the replacement birth rate stabilizes. You aim to have a sustainable economy and growth should be something good to have and not a must have.
So the prices of hookers are low? How much for a really good quality prostitue?
That is too bad!! When I visited Korea, I definitely noticed the elderly women had terrible jobs; they were the maids, cleaners, and were picking up trash in the streets very early in the morning.
Please define terrible job? If you are doing honest work and treated well, there are no terrible jobs. Quit looking down on people. I have more respect for a cleaner picking up trash on the road, making my city beautiful to live in, than a government office worker belonging to the parasite class who just has pointless meetings, long lunch breaks, shuffles papers from one corner of the desk to the other, and contributes nothing of value to society. Canada is so full of these pointless civil servants sucking up taxpayer dollars, if half of them were fired and told to get real jobs, the government would have more money for the elderly.
But if it was young people that were picking up trash that would be okay?
@Justice Democrat if they need to and got paid sufficient money then ok. But if you think these numerous old poor exploitable replaceable boomer do this with dignity and good money in the hyper-capitalist society SK has then I must disagree
I like this kind of relatively untapped topics that need more attentions to address. Would you like to make a video to elaborate on the housing bubbles around the world?
Decent analysis of one of the region's most overlooked crises.
My family moved to the states when I was 7. They moved here so that I could get educated and have a good life. I never forgot what they did for me. I was able to buy my mom a new Lexus 10 years ago. Sadly she died of cancer but I financially take care of my dad. I never wanted him to worry about finances when he turned old. He spends his days playing golf and travelling with me, my husband and kids whenever we go on vacation. I'm so grateful to be able to repay him
Yo no additional feedback here beyond me saying I appreciate your channel bruv
Rising poverty by this definition means rising relative poverty and therefore rising inequality. I do assume a high rate of relative poverty has to do with a high rate of economic growth since the time those elders entered and even since they left the labour market. In a way its the other side of the coin of the generational inequality that favors elders in the US.
Korean people abandon their elders. What a shame
One interesting fact is that the poor elderly who needs more government support usually votes to radical conservatives. As the new conservative president takes the South Korean government, the remaining support will be cut drastically.
Seems like that happens everywhere unfortunately. Like how in the US, the poor living in rural areas could benefit greatly from social welfare policies but vote for people who call for the complete removal of such support.
@@jxz107 that free money does not go to white people who are poor
Often due to social issues. Elderly tend to be socially conservative
@@willnill7946 sure, go back to building your wall dumb dumb
A nice, well-researched video on the elderly poverty issue in SK. It's kind of implied or directly mentioned in the video, but I think it boils down to three factors: (inadequate) income/savings in prime years, short runway to build generational wealth, and zero-sum/costly expenses.
I'd say, unless one is kind of stuck in a low income job, ideally nobody should be really counting on their retirement pensions as a primary source to support their living. I'd say at least 1 million equivalent US dollars excluding home equity should've been saved up by the time of retirement to have a comfortable retirement life. People with reasonable educational degrees and jobs in other high income countries can easily pull this off because their employment income is *actually* high. In SK, while some technology related gigs have started to break the previous highs, most of the so-called high-paying jobs in SK are not really high paying as the annual salary peak at 100k equivalent US dollars, whereas it's not uncommon to have an income exceed $150-200k in the US or elsewhere pretty early on in the 30s across a broad spectrum of industries. I don't have the exact statistics, but I'd imagine the people working in these high income jobs in SK only accounts for 10-15% at most, and the rest would probably peak at $65k and lower, with the peak period reached at a much later stage in their career (early or mid 40s) and short runway to milk it. This is all the while where the average housing prices in Seoul is around or above 1 million US equivalent dollars while the overall consumer prices are as high as other real high income countries. So I'd say these overall mediocre income levels do not provide the Koreans with an adequate enough savings after retirement, and the reality is most of the people are counting on their home equity to support their living. This may work but not sure if this is a good strategy for those currently in their 30s/40s given that home ownership is dropping considerably and demand is expected to decline given the impending working age population cliff. I personally think the housing prices in Seoul, perhaps except for select rich areas, has peaked.
Also, another thing to keep in mind is that most of the current elderly population really started with "nothing" in a poverty stricken country at the time when they were growing up in their 60s/70s. While some saw their net worth increased dramatically as the Korean economy grew, I'd say those who have fully reaped the benefits are not the majority, and even for those who saw their home value increase tremendously, that's what they mostly have, an illiquid asset which needs to be sold to support their income. Most were not inherited with any sort of generational wealth and in effect started from scratch.
These all leads to the final sequence of events which almost guarantees a grossly inadequate level of resources in their later lives: subsidizing their children at "all" costs for their education and housing. Everyone knows in the country that public education has become utterly useless in terms of not only being able to develop nuanced logical thinking and critical skills but also even for preparing for the country's infamous rote exams; as such, they need to get private tutors to have a shot of getting into at least reasonable schools (cutoff is ~ top 10 to 15), which later dictate what jobs they can have and where they can get employed. In addition to the private schooling expenses, parents are expected to contribute 200-300k US equivalent dollars at their marriage, *assuming they have a son*, to just get their children married as one's chance of finding a partner becomes extremely difficult to without that funding secured and in place to buy an apartment in Seoul.
Yep, it's not the chaebols' fault that these massive mega-corporations underpay their workers and raked in hundreds of billions it's uhh...the workers who failed to build generational wealth or something.
On the other side you have Italy where the median pension is around 90% of the median salary. The biggest factor driving the ginormous public debt are the pensions expenditure(plus gross mismanagement of public funds).
Imo a mixed system as implemented in Netherlands, Switzerland or UK are the best. The public pensions are enough to get by but for a comfortable life you need to have a second or third tier private fund.
Great analysis. Please ignore some stupid comments & continue your wonderful work.
Good video. You should do a similar video about Singapore's elderly, who, based on my own anecdotal observations, are relatively poor as well. An example is people in their 70s working in McDonalds in Singapore, whereas pretty much everyone (except for the manager) working at a McDonalds in Denmark is below the age of 20, some even below 18. I think it will be hard to get reliable statistics though. Baby boomer poverty in Asian industrialised countries is quite surprising. In Denmark, where I live, the baby boomers who have retired are much better off financially than the 20-35 years age group.
yup. we see old folks here having to work as cleaners, security guards as a form of exercise :( i seriously think we need to redesign work in industrialized nations for our old folks. maybe offer more part time options for them so they can spend some time working and some time off for themselves to rest and meet up with their loved ones. its really sad we all are consumed by work even till we grow old and kick the bucket. no wonder fertility rates are plummeting all across the developed countries. for those in bigger countries where there are the rural or less developed states, smaller countries residents have nowhere to go to take shelter from the high costs of living
I don't think it's that surprising. The elderly in Singapore and South Korea grew up in developing africa-tier countries. They didn't have the benefit of investing in a mature pension system. I could be wrong, but Denmark was already well-developed and wealthy during the boomer generation. People forget how young those countries are and how quickly they grew, and those countries only grew because of the hard labor of their elderly.
@@guitarazn90210 And also how much lower the wages were during their prime working years
@@guitarazn90210 Granted Denmark was already wealthy in the post-war years- but occupational pensions for private-sector workers were only introduced in the late 70s, and coverage wasn't universal. The difference is that there is a guaranteed state pension. Singapore, with over USD 1 trillion under management in its sovereign wealth funds and only 3.5 million citizens, can certainly afford a decent state pension. South Korea, while less wealthy, probably can as well.
You know it’s screwed up in Seoul and you go to parks and see elderly women prostituting themselves. That really shocked me in 2010.
its a country that lacks respect towards women. why? because the ancient problem comes from the Korean Yangbans who treated women like sex dolls.
I mean at the end this can all be tied to the "How the Rich Ate South Korea" video. Unlike Japan, corporations control everything essentially. While corporations control a lot in Japan they have a lot less power vs SK.
It’s a lot of oecd countries struggling with the pension problem.
I read a research paper that suggested a “new carrier planning” for those over 50 to cope with the new form of pension financing. It was suggested they followed different university programs to re-educate them selves, starting at the age of 50 and it was mandatory. It was considered as a life long education in order to utilize the brainpower and competence of old people because in the future we need brainpower and not hard physical labor.
The US and the Scandinavian countries offer parts of this already, but as a country wide mandatory program, that might be the future?
What really got me thinking reading the paper was the amount of accumulated industry/ business knowledge old people have. Think of all the ideas they had, the in-depth knowledge in many highly specialized fields, and what do we do with it today, we just cut them out and trying to invent the wheel again.
That sounds like the universities are desperately needing students for income.
46%?? That's actually crazy
Best educational channel right now
This is a brilliant video insight and certainly offers up some relevant data on the growing problems the seniors face. I do concur that as per many other countries (S Korea was NOT alone re this)👀 in some instances it was clear, the companies who in some instances were suspiciously 'bankrupt' taking with them substantial funds that were supposed to bolster and protect pensions, are responsible for some of the hell facing some seniors WHO did take responsibilities. In short they were robbed by those who should have been held accountable for what happened, BUT I suspect, seldom if ever; were. 👀Maxwell and lets NOT forget those responsible for BHS financial farce (UK) that caused so many to lose their pensions whilst those responsible took millions and ran away?👀What is worse still is how some governments are directly or indirectly responsible for the thieves getting away with some of the criminal activities they got up to, bolstered if not encouraged by them 😗BUT denying all knowledge pertinent to such criminal activities let alone compensating the victims. 👀Lastly let us not forget the BILLIONS that countries spend on everything and anything that is considered by them to be OK (that in some instances we should have NO illusions about are wasteful) to pay out, whilst their own people suffer financially? Global capitalists who took the money and ran.. feeding like leeches off the sweat and labour of the people putting millions into tax free off shore accounts. BILLIONS that could have changed the elderly poverty situation.
enron... and 2008 here in the US and whats happening right now
Almost 200k subscribers? When did this happen? I subbed when you had like 1.4k. seems like it was yesterday.
currently living in korea and your vid seems spot on
No mention of bagkaseu halmeoni. Strange, given this is an unusual phenomenon in other similar countries, and so really emphasises your point.
55 is considered an “elder”? You’re telling me I have 12 more years left before I’m an elder? No way man. Elder is 70.
korea used to report such things on their own through shows and news broadcasts. Just look up old clips about 10-15 years ago and now they've sanatized everything. As an american that have traveled around the states, if the US that always shows it self in the best of light (when exporting things) can have places with no clean water access and other deplorables, I won't think that any other country like korea doesn't have such issues, espeically since I feel like unitll recently, there's been a major age gap of public people as though once you hit around age 35, you're not seen again...
As a American I only see the bad stuff about America online. We don't sanitize crap. So many news clips and articles every day. Now politicians will try to however.
TAX THE RICH. The few families that are billionaires in Korea have a social responsibility. Break up the chaebols. But that won’t happen because government is bought and paid for by them or are them.
A lot of elderly people sells lottery ticket in vietnam, even disabled ones too, they basically just go around general dining area and sell lottery ticket for around 43 cents, i've seen some of the disabled one operating some sort of 3 wheels small vehicle to move around, plenty of them cleaning trash in the early morning as well and a lot are working as janitors in schools and big corporate buildings, also in hotels and alike
this vid needs way more views
it happens in everywhere in east asia, recycling and cleaning staff are all elderly people😢
If SK wants to solve its social demographic problem of too few children, then economic pressures need to be taken off the young. This means somebody else has to do without.
Western living in Taiwan, I love your content and insights. Spot on this analysis and I would like to point out that East-SouthEast Asian mentality is very close to the Southern European / Mediterranean one. 15 years ago when I first visited Asia, I was so surprised when I felt like "home" compared to the time when i lived in N. Europe.
Yep, lived both in Italy and Japan and I was surprised to see that while most older people lived with their children (including my grandparents) both in Italy and Japan, but in Sweden and Germany they go to retirement homes.
southeast asia is more laid back compare to east asia, heck east asia is different species compare to the rest asia. they are more focus, more dilligent, and more hard working. an anomaly compare to other parts of asia.
@@Jin88866 My family is Portuguese, I live in Canada, and my parents will never see the inside of a seniors residence. When my father was dying from cancer I got in to an argument with his doctor who wanted to send him to a palliative care center to die. I told him hell no, took a month off work and gave my father palliative care at home. He died in his own bed, saw his grandchildren every morning and every evening. I worked in a high end seniors residence and its horrible how a lot of our elderly are warehoused and forgotten by their families.
@@susiex6669 I'd have done the same thing. I think Italy and Portugal share a lot of similarities
@@Jin88866 Of course we do. We are all Southern Europeans. Our culture is very different from Northern Europeans. 👍
You cannot necessarily conclude that a government pension plan is unsustainable just because it runs a deficit. If that government prints its own money and pensions are paid in that currency, then the pension won't default unless the government wants it to: they can always print the money needed for the payouts. (This goes for Korea's plan and US's social security).
The problem is inflation: if you print too much, inflation can spiral out of control... but inflation can be controlled by a having growing economy.
So things aren't as simple as deficit --> run out of pension money (nor are they as simple as print money --> everyone set for life).
There's no data on Singapore elder poverty. I guess its the same if not worse than SKorea. In Singapore, you will see hawker centers employ cleaners, dishwashers, and many menial jobs almost exclusively to seniors. And they are everywhere. It has to do with Singapore own CPF system where you are forced to save 20% of your income to non-withdrawable account every month until you retire. Then you start drawing your "savings" monthly until you die or you run out of your fund. There is no alternative gov pension system.
Problem was, most seniors when they were younger earn little bcoz Sg was still developing stage. So by the time they retire, their savings were very little in their CPF accounts. As Sg economy grew, so does living costs. Problems were compounded by ppl living longer.
So if you retire by 60, and your monthly withdrawal shall only last about 20 yrs depending on your plan.
So if you are not dead by 80, then you have run out of money.
And if your income was lesser during your younger working days (about 40 yrs ago), then your monthly withdrawal will not cover Sg rising living costs. Hence, elders are forced to work until they can no longer leave their homes.
purchasing power in korea is not good. and competition is cut throat, imagine studying or schooling 18 hours a day for 20 years, going to military for 1-2 years, and then more study for another 2 or so years, and then you make enough to pay rent that take up half your income and basically live pay check to paycheck. basically it is like how the coasts in the USA is starting to look like, except in the USA if you put in just 10% effort of average south korean, you will make 6 figures easily.
if you are just making ends meet while leaving to work at 7AM and coming home at 8PM and your partner does the same, does it make sense to have someone take off work in order to have a baby? and are you able to support your parents?
maybe if the same amount of money for a stuido or 1-2 bedroom could afford 3-4 bedrooms, young south koreans can house their parents, but this is not the case.
Confucian value work if the country is rich in relative terms to cost of living, and while korea is keeping up somewhat, it is due to extreme cut-throat competition, leading to both highest IQ but also highest suicide rate. the system only works if regular C-B grade student in normal non-SKY university can make comfortable living and live respectable lifestyle, but in SK, this is not the case.
Great video. Japan also suffers similar structural issues as Korea. With similar problems of rigid employment structures, seniors are often forced to retire sooner than need be and are often forced to take second careers. And while the Nenkin system is more mature, it is financially precarious as well. Korea's National Pension only started in 1988 so one issue with today's seniors is they havent been able to contribute for long meaning less years of contribution calculated in the payment.
While your focus was on Korea, I think a lot of the issues are challenges that all of East Asia is facing.
@@tigeriontigerion9112 I'm Japanese. It's interesting to see and compare our countries especially as many of the similar structures (eg. Pension System) were implemented in both countries but seeing differing results. And while Japan is doing better on a percentage level than Korea, we still have problems with poverty among seniors.
Besides what's wrong with comparing and contrasting countries?
@@wesleynishi6081
You are right.
@@wesleynishi6081 i think some didn't like to be compared, especially when they are at the bad end of that comparison.
I can't speak for asia, but as a retired American, we have the same problem. Millions of Americans are retired on a $600.00 to $800.00 per month social security retirement. Those folks are barely eating every day, and must work terrible part-time jobs to eat and have a place to sleep. Same problem. I believe the percentage of poor retired Americans is VERY high. Something needs to be done, these folks worked hard all of their lives.
While a lack of a robust pension scheme is certainly part of the issue, as can be seen with Korea's placement in income redistribution via tax policies within the OECD, I think not enough emphasis was made on Korean financial literacy, or lack there of.
Firstly, VCs are pointless here in Korea. The ability for a start-up to survive solely depends on either federal assignment/subsidy/legislation or conglomerate support; politicians get voted out and conglomerates are not only shareholders but your biggest client and competitor. In turn, this fucks up the stock market, leaving only real-estate as means of investment. The old adage is that you buy into the stock market only to get enough funds to dump back into real-estate.
However, real estate as means to build wealth is made unattainable by the rich backed by junse money and conglomerate investment holdings.
So with real-estate not within reach, people turn to franchises for side income. Here, they also pay a huge deposit in "Use Rights" which goes to the previous operator.
With all the money tied up in interest-free loans to people who already had money, disposable income to grow new enterprises and provincial hubs disappears. People are then forced into the arms of the Republic of Seoul and conglomerates for employment, perpetuating the cycle.
Even if Korean real-estate does not get to Lost Decade levels, the loss of productivity in time, R&D and opportunity costs in this backward financial and real-estate market will blow up in a way that will make whining about the doubling of greater-Seoul housing prices under Moon look quaint (why he decided screwing with the supply by raising taxes would actually bring down prices or why people are looking to the president to interfere with the market, I have no idea). Koreans are very proud of the low national debt but somehow the money floating around in junse never seems to bother anybody.
Current condition of the Korean elders are motivating current young people to stop having and cut off the biggest resource drain and save more for their later years!
My two favorite lines from this video:
11:42 "nothing can be done"
Sadly, it is the truth, as east asian civilizations modernize, populations will eventually fall. The question is how fast. Will the small younger population be able to support the older population? only time will tell.
13:03 "this is no way to treat the people who have built up the country to what it is today"
I have the utmost respect for the older generation. They lived through one of the drastic social changes in east asian history. They didn't have an opportunity to even think about retirement nor financial planning. The people living right now are living through the biggest changes in east asia. I hope us younger generation can work a little bit harder so the generation after us do not have to worry about things like this. It's time to stop this toxic Confucian cycle that puts too much pressure on kids. It can start with us.
우리 젊은 세대가 나서서 사회문제를 고쳐갑시다
我們年輕代必須先來改一改這種社會問題。
It is actually very cheap to provide basic accommodation and food by the government, however, but keeping the elderly poor, the society has a large cheap labour force.
@@johnso2399 So the businesses want to keep the elderly poor? Yeah, the chaebols own Korea. Chaebol is Iraqi Arabic for urine tea; a Korean person read that joke I made and said 'Ah, the smell of corruption'.
@@Moses_VII But since South Korea is a democratic society, any fault is a collective choice of their own people. Can not blame anyone, not even the chaebols.
@@johnso2399 they can vote to change their government, they can protest to force their president to resign, why can't they change their mentality? Incomprehensible.
@@johnso2399 Actually this is one of the most mind-boggling thing that came up recently during my discussion with my Japanese/Korean friends. I don't fully understand how, a collectivist society can claim to have a democratic society? 'Democratic' means rule by the people, but Japanese in particular, tend to think that the government work should not be interfered by them. The voting system is one part of democracy, another part is freedom of speech. The exercise the former but they have laws that protects the powerful people in the society under 'defamation laws' because of course the powerful and rich need government protection eh? Because they can't afford good lawyers or pay for legal proceedings otherwise? 😛
To work so much for so long, thinking it will pay off in the end, only for it to not pay off at all.
The solution is to economically empower the young and enable them to have more children. The dependency ratio is crucial to allowing there to be enough workers in the economy to sustain the old, and with such a low birth rate, South Korea's situation in particular will only get worse with time. If more resources are instead allocated directly to the old, then this will merely squeeze the young, further suppressing the fertility rate and only accelerating the issue in the long run.
Have more children? You nuts?
I think you don't really understand the problem. In your head children feed feed their parents, more working hands is more income to those in need. That's an ilusion.
The more workers you have the cheaper is the labor. You create more poverty for their current life and for their future.
When you bring on a new worker you'll have the labor market cheaper for another 5 decades. That's way to go.
@@SaladaTodoDia Right, so as the population boomed from 1 billion to 7 billion since 1800, we were all plunged into desperate poverty from the gleaming heights of prosperity that existed beforehand, right? Oh wait no sorry that's the exact opposite of what happened.
@@decus9544 There is a limit though. I think we have reached it in developed countries. We didn't have decrease in fertility rates when the population went from 1 to 7 billion; there must have been a reason.
@@Moses_VII The reasons, as I see it, were the following, in roughly descending order.
1: Feminism hadn't ramped up yet fully and the traditional economic dependence of women on men meant that they had to form couples for survival, and men traditionally have been the ones to push for larger families.
2: Society was more agricultural, and in agricultural societies there is an economic imperative to have as many children as possible to act as free labour.
3) Economies were closer to laissez faire/ had lower tax rates, meaning a greater share of income could go to raising children.
4) The costs of raising children was lower: as HDI has increased due to improved living standards, the minimum cost to raise children whilst still giving them reasonable prospects in the economy has increased over time.
5) Population densities were lower meaning that housing was cheaper (even if it was worse quality), meaning more available space and a more stable basis from which to raise a family.
6) Increasingly the old are becoming a larger proportion of society and greater effort is having to be dedicated to supporting them rather than raising children.
Besides all the above, we are not talking about an exponentially increasing population anyway, merely a stabilisation of the current population, with an associated fertility rate of just above 2, as opposed to South Korea's almost bottomed out fertility rate of 0.8.
North Korea preserved its values and maintains a decent birth rate. South Korea embraced western poison because they wanted money. Women would rather work than raise children or find a husband. I bet they will soon seek immigration as a solution. Can't let the GDP drop.
Well researched and presented. We are having a very similar problem in USA. Company Pensions system are in tatters since work unionization has been attacked by politicians; inflation is out of control; and "Social Security Pension" when adjusted for Medicare (medical) insurance increases provide zero real inflation protection. Social Security (mostly for elderly but recent expanded for other groups) will likely be reduced either out right by government underfunding (Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty to blame for near date expected shortfalls). Much lip service is given in the USA to respecting Seniors Citizens but many of our elderly need to choose between medicine, groceries and house (choose 2 out of three). At the same time the government give-aways to younger Americans (student debt forgiveness) means everyone including elderly pay for debts incurred by the youth. FUBAR = FCUKed Up Beyond All Recognition. A radical shift in consensus, incorporating both left and right political elements is needed to "right the ship.". Bottom Line: The USA Government will keep you neither "safe" nor "sound". Count on your own sensible planning, hard work and resources . Eventually . . . better women and men will emerge and bring an overdue change to government. Irresponsibility is our hallmark for the moment . . . equally shared by both political parties.
Pensions, social security etc. are scams. The government needs to get out of all of this.
You should do one on the elderly in Singapore as I suspect it’s bad as well .
That is not true...
A lot of old ppl in Singapore live alone in a hdb flats while their kids live separately from them.
Singapore is full of migrant workers always looking to rent a room.
A lot of ppl who rent out their rooms to migrant workers are actually old ppl in Singapore, my friend is renting a room from an old lady in Singapore
A flat usually has 3 rooms, that means, there are always 2 rooms available to be rented out, and each room will fetch them at least sgd 500 excluding utilities bill, if stuffs like utilities are included in the room rental rates, the rate will be higher than sgd 500
With a side income of sgd 1000+ a month, that is enough to cover expenses like food/transportation cost (almost everyone in Singapore travel by public transports)/phone bill for 1 person.
Also, medical cost for Singapore citizens is free.
You’ll see a lot of old ppl in Singapore are working in jobs like garbage collecting/street cleaning, they aren’t rich, but, they aren’t as poor as the South Korean ones.
Some of them are working becoz they wanna live in a flat and don’t want any random ppl intruding their lives, so that’s why they didn’t rent out their empty rooms, and in order to earn extra income, they choose to work.
Of course, some of them do rent out their rooms and work at the same time.
Merci. Exactly
when I was young old people never really retired. instead they worked at home and provided much needed help on the homefront. a little cooking, a little cleaning and keeping an eye out for the kids. working outside of the home was unheard of though.