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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The lack of pay increase but massive spike in spending

The worst part about this is that it is a vicious circle. The governments will prioritize the elderly majority putting even more strain on the young leading to even less kids and more old people. In my country it is already manifesting by the government spending huge amounts of money to make sure that the pensions keep rising and at the same time they make budget cuts for education and healthcare and do nothing to alleviate the soaring house and rent prices and they can't do anything else because freezing or lowering pensions is a political suicide in a majority old democratic nation. Edit: I am taking about the Czech Republic, but the issues are basically the same everywhere in the West

As someone who's been to South Korea for an hour I just wana say your air port is very long.

i feel a better title would be 'why the world is dying out' rather than just korea

I'm nearly 24 and my parents would have expected me to settle down and support a family by now had the world been an affordable place to live. But kids are expensive and at this present moment I literally have $24 in my bank accounts, and I get paid next week. Living on my own is impossible, I live with two roommates with similar incomes. This economy is nightmarish. I work 34 hours a week and I'm also a student. I'm bogged down trying to build a successful life in a world that seems hellbent on failing. Everyone in power is obsessed with hate and greed. Not to mention they're old enough that they'll die before they see the consequences of their actions. It feels pretty bleak.

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

You're the most modest youtuber I've ever seen with such an incredible legacy can't wait til your next vid😊😊😊

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

Something that I'm disappointed wasn't touched on is the financial deficit of having children. it's becoming increasingly more expensive to live in the western world as salaries have not increased to match, and children are incredibly expensive to have. Until the cost of living vs average salary goes back to what it was like pre 2008, having children is just straight up bad to do financially.

South Korea was initially projected to have a fertility rate of 0.6 in 2035, but achieved it 10 years ahead of schedule, a feat that is unprecedented in the world.

As a 24 Year old South Asian, recently I was getting exceptionally concerned about how life will play out. In a vast variety of worries. This video has brought me some much needed peace and reassurances. Thank you, Birbs!

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

I am a Korean student. Currently, Korea does not regard the low birth rate as a major social disaster, even though it is serious. I've been taught about low birth rates since elementary school, but the only thing that changed was the declining birth rate..

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

I'm Japanese, but this video will still make sense if we replaced the word Korea with Japan. We share a lot of social problems in common, but I can say the situation is EXACTLY the same when it comes to low birth rate. It's just so hard to "afford" children both in terms of cost and time. Women are taught independence from patriarchy when young, but then must sacrifice them in order to have a child. The government is useless too. Why should I waste my expensive degrees and all of skills/experience to work for less than a decade and dedicate the rest of my life to raise another person? I'd rather not have children so I can save money to assure me and my parent's life.

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

As a student who is facing the CSAT (Korean college entrance exam) literally 6 weeks later, one of the main factors affecting the drastic birth rate in Korea is the overcompetition for higher education which stresses both parents and students immensly throughout the upbringing of children. Due to Korea's historical Confucianistic values and the unique context of the steep economic growth post-korean war period, Korea's society places immense societal importance and value on one's educational background, and this creates an education system which mostly focuses around getting students to excel in the csat through their 12 years of school life. This in result creates a growing private education sector worth more than 20 billion dollars, students lifestyle being turned into a repetitive cycle comprised only of only school, tuition centres/academy and sleep, creating the highest youth suicide rates among OECD nations and lowest happiness levels. In my own case, our family used to spend more than $1500 monthly on private education for me and my brother, a sum thats about 20% of our montly income (which is probably somewhere in the upper middle class region) and this is considered to be not much compared to the Daechi Kids (Daechi being an area in Seoul, considered to be the private education centre of Korea), whose parents spend thousands of dollars for their children to try and get a good score in the csat so that they can go to medical schools. This really creates a never ending cycle of stress, with students being suicidal and parents having to cope with the ever increasing education fees, which in return places even more importance in having to get into college to fulfill society's expectations and to overcome the increasing competition. This cycle affects all sorts of things like employment, housing prices and etc, and really creates an atmosphere where one feels unprepared to have children unless they have the economic background to support their children in winning the competition. In my own opinion, I really wouldn't want to have children in Korea as I would feel as if having wronged them by making them grow up in a reality that probably is going to be even more stressful than my past 12 years of school.

Korea is basically the textbook example of what happens when living an ordinary, simple life is regarded as failure. I’m Korean but glad my parents didn’t put me through all that.

In my opinion, learning about what we can do to manage our economy is extremely helpful :D

Decrease in human population not just in one country but as a whole earth, should deem good given the current population. Human population has far surpassed the "optium saturation" for the Earth

In Australia, 1 day of childcare costs ~70% of the amount my partner earns in a day so it's literally a choice between either career or having kids but not both.

To pass on what I've heard from many young people: if you would like them to consider children, pay them a fair and living wage, with actual job stability, allow for family leave from work, and provide accessible and non-budget-busting healthcare. That's it. That's the floor of solidity upon which to build a family (another floor is full community support, but that's not all too common anymore). The erosion of wages and job security (especially starting in the 80s), coupled with healthcare issues and existential threats, has made having children so fraught that many are, logically, opting out. Tut tutting them while you pilfer their paycheques won't make it better.

After watching this video I felt so many thoughts about this subject. As a Korean, I thought about how the problems we face affect our lives directly or indirectly, after that consideration, this is not a matter only of merely decreasing population but related to the economy and so many aspects of our social affairs like kindergarten and elementary school admission rate is under decreasing. so I firmly assert that to solve this disastrous situation will be needed the intervention of government like legislation. I think this is so a complicated matter that is out of the individual range.

Once the population reaches a manageable number, hopefully things will stabilize and policies can improve so that those who want to have children will have the support and confidence in the world they need. Although we may have to all live through a lot of difficult times to reach that place 😥

Personally the biggest blocker for me as someone with a wonderful partner, both of us working decent jobs and wanting to have a family is the cost of housing and child expenses. I feel that without a large enough house to comfortably accommodate the two children we would like, we need to get into better paying positions for that to happen which means having kids later which limits opportunity. And as said in the video, I want us both to be present in raising our children which means at least one of us would need to either change to working from home or give up on a career. I dont care about my career more than family but we both need to earn to support a family so not sure when would even be a good time. It's troubling to think about.

Personally, as a man living in Canada, I’d love to have kids, I’ve always wanted kids, but it’s just not possible. I can barely find a place to live for myself, I get by sleeping on different friends’ couches, often at their parent’s home, and a mix of short term rentals. There’s just nowhere to live, and owning a home is a fairytale. I can’t raise kids and have a family when I don’t even have a roof to stably live under. It’s difficult to even start a relationship when you don’t know where you’re sleeping. And I’m lucky enough to have a great and flexible job that pays excellent wages, is very stable, and I thoroughly enjoy. I know tons of people bouncing around working minimum wage who don’t have any direction or plan. All because the life we grew up hearing about, going to school and then getting a job and then buying a house and starting a family, is becoming downright impossible.

Wonderfully made & summarized!

Amazing and thorough video.

I used to have a friend that said, “I don’t even want to take care of myself, let alone a family.” And the more time goes on, the more I’m starting to agree.

As a 25 year old Woman in the UK the idea of me being able to have and support children seem a like a miracle, not because I am physically unable to, but the amount of extra hours me and my partner need to put in at work to make ends meet I cannot imagine giving that up, halving an income that’s already not enough and having a child in a life that would cost so much more than when I was a baby. Life has got way too expensive, costs are spiralling out of control. At my age my mother was able to give up work to support me and my sister, live on one income and didn’t struggle because wages were relatively much higher back than. I would love to have children one day, but financially I don’t see how it could be possible.

In 1970s birth rate in US was as low as 1.7, but then in grew back to 2.0 in the year 2000. So steady economic growth really could help here

IM from south India (Kerala) and here, many girls including me feel having kids will be a trap, as a women nothing ever was easy or made easy hence, kids feel like more of a non-shared "burden" in the family (as if it was born involving just 1 parent and no shared responsibilities)

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

I'm a high school student in Korea, and I have midterm coming up in a few days. I spend more than half of my day studying, including school routines and hagwon every day, but I can't feel much value from the knowledge I've learned like that. That is nothing more than a tool for competition. I am tired of the fierce tests and competition that are repeated every semester. The fact that my child will have to go through this competition in the future is appalling. In fact, in a survey of class children in my school, most students, except a few, said they don't want to have children in the future, and one of the reasons was the fierce competition structure mentioned earlier. Everyone talks as if the world is over if they don't get to college, and they value only profits and stability while ignoring individual talents and aptitudes. Many foreign media, including this video, point to the problem of low birth rate in Korea and its causes, but the Korean political community is sitting on the sidelines of the worsening problem. How sad it is.

When would you even have the time to properly raise a kid when 1 job in the family isn't close to maintain them.

3:16 this purple birds moves so smoothly

As a Korean, no idea how we're supposed to solve this. I've spent my whole life studying the most mundane & useless shit for a college entry exam, and now I'm forced to do that again in college. Everything is exhausting cus no day offs, no holidays- I gotta work to pay rent/tuition when I'm not in school. And I'm probably not going to land a job after graduating either! (A mystery, since apparently population is shrinking) Feel like everyone around me is doing the same too. And the guys serve mandatory military service too while doing all this shit??? Literally no idea how they do it. Everyday I realize there are thousands of Koreans in worse situations than me, and none of us are stable to think about kids. Complete joke of a country, just leave us alone and we'll gladly make an example to what happens if a country fails to repopulate. Hope yall governments learn from us and start lowering housing rates!!

I am turning 30 soon. Most of my 20s have been stressing about getting the right education, finding the good job which provides me with income, working hard to save money for my own house, resulting to having two burn-outs by the age of 28. I haven't had time to find a spouse, and I feel like I might end up childfree. Age cannot be reversed, and I am still 24/7 exhausted due to the last burnout, which I haven't been able to recover from. How am I supposed to raise a child when I already am exhausted, I hardly can go to the grocery store without wanting to cry and yell - not to mention how to find someone willing to make a child with me when I am like this! I would make a horrible parent.

21st century communication opportunities also speed this up, people "convince" others to not have kids when they might have instinctively have some

Its to expensive to have children for the middle class, you have a 9 to 5 and want to be a good parent. Thats very difficult to combine.

Had this convo with my friend yesterday, what her and I concluded is that its damn near impossible to raise a child effectively and work. And knowing South Korea's work culture, I think our conclusion holds up pretty well.

If you allow me to share my perspective: in the reality I live in, the main issue that stops people from having more kids is... Money. Jobs are paying less, everything is getting more expensive by the hour, and it's become an enormous challenge to be able to work hard enough to live by and sustain your family, while also enjoying it (even with both working). Previous generations were able to afford big houses with a low income, not to mention buying food, paying school bills, everything was cheaper. Nowadays you have to be very well off to be able to have a decent sized apartment not too far from crucial facilities such as schools, hospitals, markets... so in the end, most couples end up having less than 2 kids because the housing is small, and they'll be wasting a huge part of the income just to pay for that, so not much is left to pay for education, helathcare and food (not even mentioning transportation, electricity, internet and electronic devices, which can be considered essential in today's society and are definetely not cheap, at least not here in Brazil).

I think bus ride will subject to market rule such as supply and demand too, so I’m being pretty optimistic that at some point the demand is high price is fit and they will come back

i literally binge watch on these lol

Literally the case in many countries is the lack of affordability. Here in the US housing is expensive. Many young people are still living with their parents or are opting to renting an apartment. Healthcare is a joke. One visit to the hospital/ER can financially bankrupt you. Many women/mothers don't receive substantial benefits such as lengthy maternity leaves. Access to daycare services is expensive. Food is getting more expensive. Higher education is expensive. The idea of having a single child right now sounds like a nightmare.

I feel like this video doesn't address the underlying issue with birth rates: The cost of healthcare, the cost of taking care of a child, and the absolutely crushing lack of opportunity and uncertainty of the future, loss of faith in the society you're growing up in, and a lack of societal stability giving you confidence to procreate and ensure a stable springboard for your progeny. People have kids when they have hope, and that's at a critically low supply right now

Fantastic visuals and great editing

The cost of living crisis not even being mentioned is very tone deaf. I am a US citizen, college graduate and a member of the working poor. Full time hours don't necessarily mean a person can rent a studio apartment. I'm in my 30s now and still can't on full time income. I look foward to becoming a parent in my 30s- which I decided by age 17. I also looked foward to being a professional, home ownership, having a garden, helping conserve land, and being able to retire when I became too unhealthy to work. I am not having any biological children now because I can't afford housing on my own, let alone pay to freeze eggs on top of housing and food expensies. I can't afford to loose the ability to work full time and overtime hours. This video was very dissapointing. It framed having less children solely as a personal choice made to allow for self-indulgence. It might be the case sometimes, but not in every case. I assure you that there are plenty of hard working people who want families and homes of their own. Poverty must be a choice according to these video makers. I'd like to start seeing statistics on people's perceptions of what they can afford; and what it is they want from life relative to what they beleive they can afford. There is a disparity between aspirations and reality, and the masses are working full time after getting college educations and still worrying about housing and medical care costs. The socioeconomic system is unhealthy. Our society is unhealthy. We have to admit it to ourselves, and to each other, and think about where we have to go from here in our induvidual life journeys and as communities around the world. The social structures that got us here aren't working for everyone. It feels as though they are not even working for half of us, if that many. We should have think tanks assemble and provide them with datasets- studies on income and resource distributions, surveys of people's aspriations versus accomplishments (immaterial goals count, but material goals are valauble too. An emergency fund confers such piece of mind). As a collective, we have plenty of thoughts but they are seldom unique. We have to start talking to each other and look out for each other. The social-political polarizations, the steep socieoeconomic divides, the spike in the cost of living, poverty, material insecurity, personal debt, public debt levels - There are so many issues at play. Gross domestic product is way up but real wages have stalled these past several decades. Who intercepted all that money? Why do we tolerate tax breaks for the wealthy that never trickle down? Theres no meritocracy in my paying taxes while trillion dollar corporations have a 0% effective tax rate. We have to start thinking big picture if we are going to survive shameless greed, plastic pollution, climate change, big money in politics, special interests and fascists grabbing the poltical reigns, and every other part of the status quo that is actively killing our countries.

As a Bulgarian, I find the phrase used on 3:18 "Да ти върви по вода!" which is translated literally as "Hopefully it will flow as the water" spot on! Many Bulgarians use it often to say goodbye to their relatives.

As a Korean, I fully agree with the future prospect of the low birth rate. Everyone here in Korea seems to be aware of the problem but no one is coming up with solutions. People are so absorbed in getting their life together in this extremely competitive environment that they simply cannot think of having a family let alone taking care of their own family. The government is merely busy with advertising their "magic bullet" policies to solve the issue with astronomical amount of taxes that we pay. My own hot take, I don't think Korea will survive long in this mess

As a Korean who's watching this video, I think we rlly need to give parents a less workload bc thats what they genuinely needing rn!!!!!

As a Mexican, I can tell you that many people in my generation are not having kids because life has gotten too expensive, mainly housing, and salaries have not risen accordingly. Many people I know have to work several jobs just to get by, and not even a two-income household is enough in many cases. I know that many young people still live with their parents because they don't earn enough to afford living independently, and because the pension system has been politicized to hell and back even a vast number of old people cannot afford to live by themselves. What we need is something we might never get, mainly an extreme overhaul of labor protections and wage increases, as well as more legislation that can and should focus on reducing the pay gap between the living costs and the actual salaries.

I went to university for psychology, am working 75% in that field, and can just about afford to live in a 25 m² appartment as long as I don't get a car. If I decide to have a child, my living situation will become deeply uncertain, and I don't know if I could provide for one for that long. I know plenty of other people who live in similar situations where just affording to live on their own is already tough. While Kurzgesagt talks about how great life has become, I am wondering what they are talking about. We can barely even afford to have kids anymore now. Back then one parent could afford to support a family of 6, along with a house of their own and two cars. Of course no one is having kids anymore if you make everyone effectively too poor to support one.

The housing market explains 75% of this trend. My father as a high school graduate, was able to afford a good house with 30 month of his wage. Today as a PhD I cannot buy same house for 600 months of my current wage. Same goes for rents...

I work 10h shifts, and still I can barely afford to live...

Having kids in our shit world is dumb . Improve people’s actual quality of life -not talking about phony wealth found in consumerism -, and maybe people will have the will to have kids

Its mostly about income: My father bought himself the large house they raised me and my sister with a job as a technician. Today, both me and my syster have graduations, full time jobs and still can't even dream of being able to purchase a house. Houses in my country spiked from 180 to 900K on average in less than a single generation. In all, we can't afford shit, surviving without burdening our parents past our 30's is already a dream, let alone having everything my parents had at 24's.

As a Korean, I feel good that K-pop and K-Drama are popular around the world, but I feel a little bitter because Koreans are not happy in the real world, so it seems like such a culture is developing as a fantasy or liberation zone. . Korea is convenient and safe to live in, but competition is fiercer than any other country, and the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is worsening, so it is by no means a happy country.

I see this on a local scale in my town Schools are being shut down the plans to build new high schools vetoed by elderly because our prices to live here are so high, my teachers are all from out of town. There are elderly homes piping up left and right also.

The major Problem is, that the Zeitgeist got accelerated so much, that older ppl are already not part of it anymore which never happend before

Yeah, the financial burden of having children is a real gatekeeper as well. My wife and I have one child and are just barely scraping by. We really like the idea of having a second child, but there is no way we could afford it. We are both college graduates and make a solid income, but it feels like money doesn't go nearly as far as it used to. Unless we choose to adopt later in life, we'll likely stay a single child family.

A famous Korean novelist said this. "In Korea, childbirth is a middle class culture." And it is very difficult for Korea to become a middle class in the true sense. Salaries do not increase surprisingly compared to deformedly expensive housing costs and increasingly expensive prices. Above all, the gap between Korea's small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations is too wide. The majority of Koreans attending small and medium-sized enterprises are not subject to the standard labor welfare proposed by the state. The few elites who work for large corporations also carry out murderous schedules because they are elite. Koreans self-help as they watch the lights of corporate buildings that are still on late at night when people need to sleep. "Look at that, it's like a lighthouse." Since living alone is so fierce, Koreans are too burdened with raising children. More couples do not have children even if they get married, and many young people avoid marriage or dating because of the "high cost." Korea has the highest suicide rate among OECD countries. Now, Korea is becoming the first 'suicidal country' in the history of the world. It's sad, but it's too late. (The sentence can be awkward because it's using a translator.)

This Channel needs to contact Mr.Beast and ask how he manage to have his show in different lenguages. Wish i could watch it with my mom. Awesome video.

Too many still have expectations of others as though we were still in 1950.

If I could have established a steady career with a dependable income I would have married and raised a family. When one of the bosses of my former company left to start a new company he took a $250M severance package. The current CEO makes nearly $1B a year. When I was fired I was offered 6 months severance pay--about $50K, and haven't found steady work since. I've never felt financially secure enough to enter into family obligations.

This video mentions individualism as one possible cause, but with Japan at least, the opposite seems to have more effect: Their collectivist views basically go towards constant self-sacrifice in the name of society, at the expense of not being able to give enough focus to build up yourself and your family. Like, that stupid custom of having to go drinking with your boss, or the one of not being able to leave early because the first one to go is a bad worker. I'm sure a lot of people would rather use that time to date, or spend it around your partner, or with your kids.

this also doesnt include possible commercial propaganda to make having kids popular or unpopular as well as inflation making it hard to have families but that would be hard to calculate in one video i believe this is the best way to explain it

I am a male born in Korea and currently residing in Seoul. Korea has had a long-standing belief that men need to have certain basic assets (house, car, etc.) in order to get married. While these preparations were more achievable during past economic development periods, currently, finding stable employment and achieving financial stability takes longer. As a result, the average age of couples at recent weddings I attended was over 33 years old. The birth rate is also a concern in Korea, where tutoring is essential, and having multiple children can be financially challenging. In a society where dual-income households are the norm, maternity leave for women is often not ideal. Yeah we are fucked 😅

I am a 26 years old, first jobber, in Thailand. I have calculated the amount of money needed to have 2 kids with my partner and we have already deemed it is impossible to have kids in our 30s. The cost of raising children these day are unreal and the older generation just refuse to acknowledge this fact. Every senior I know always ask me "when will you have kids?" but when I give an honest answer of "I can't afford to have one", they all replied me with "you are overthinking" 🤦‍♂️

Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a pregnant Korean woman in real life

I would like to contribute my point of view on this matter. I'm from Brazil, and both my maternal and paternal grandparents had between 6 to 13 children. It was very common in their time for women to give birth at a young age, around 20 years old, and they would have many children. They didn't lead luxurious lives, and a lot of people raised chickens, pigs, cattle, and vegetables to help with their daily diet. They were from a time when women didn't work; only the men would provide for everyone in the family, and yet they managed to live a humble life. Then, people from the same age group as my parents (now in their 60s) had between 1 to 4 children, and they still struggled to maintain their households. Despite having fewer children, they no longer cultivated crops or raised cattle as people migrated to urban jobs. Even with women joining the workforce, they still struggled to have a decent life. Now, I'm the first in my close social circle to have children. We're in our 30s to 40s now, and most don't want to have children. Both my wife and I work, and we barely manage to have a decent life with just one child. So, raising a family is becoming increasingly expensive over the span of 100 years. The cost of living, healthcare, entertainment - everything is on the rise. If my grandparents had 13 children today, without any support and with just one person working, they would starve. In overall, there is general feeling that our grandparents could do more with less. I will also leave a random information here: The richest 1% in the world kept almost 2/3 of all wealth generated since 2020 - around US$42 trillion.

My parents are both teachers. After college they quickly got lifetime contracts, took a loan, bought a house and eventually paid off the loan. Now 40 years later, with the house having lost quite a bit of (relative) value and them having reached higher positions in their schools, they would no longer be able to afford this house. So if you start now with a beginners income (and of course no lifetime contract, even in your wildest dreams) ... yeah, good luck with that. I might have a hunch as to why people were more likely to have kids back then.

Two daughters and two daughters-in-laws and it looks like we will wind up with 12 grandchildren, total. We are already well over half-way there. They all make good money, but they mostly work from home. I see a correlation. I recall the robot detective stories written by Isaac Asimov and Earth was a nightmare of giant human hives with privacy nonexistent. The second book took place on a wealth colony world where each individual lived alone on enormous plots of land (many square miles) with only their many robots to maintain them. And they only came together for specific purposes (like when they had to reproduce). Third book showed other colony worlds were neither hermits or hives, but got to say, I'd choose hermits over hives if those were my only options.

My elementary school has many empty classrooms and no longer uses their portables. Quite sad.

As a Korean I would like to point out that one of the biggest reasons young people can't have kids here is because of the "Seoul Republic" problem. Currently the absolute majority of the Big corporations are located in Seoul or the Seoul metropolitan area. Young people all across the nation has to move to seoul to get a Job. But that only make competition and House prices go higher. It's very hard for this generation to get a job, and it's near impossible to own a house in seoul if you're parent doesn't already have one. This issue plus long work hours and strict work culture kills all thought of having marriage. I believe an update on our work culture and fairer distribution of jobs and infrastructure across regions are absolutely necessary for my countries future. I cannot say there will be a good outcome, but when the population shrinks up to a certain point and the national work mindset changes enough things can change. I like to think the pain we endure today could be a learning experience to be a better nation overall. Anyways much thanks for Kurz!

(Edit: video title has changed since I made this comment. Didn't used to specify Korea.) Low wages and an obsession with infinite growth are holding us back. Over the last 30 years our effective buying power has been cut in half. If people were able to work fewer hours for more pay, they'd be able to better pursue family, careers, and their own happiness with less compromise.

Interesting that this pops up into my feed, considering I want to study (character) art in South Korea. C’est la vie.

I have been in Korea for 6 months in 2023 for business and I have to say that they are putting so much focus on being successful that they don’t want to make kids because of the pressure to succeed forced on n the new generation from the old generations. It is a little bit sad and no wonder why South Korea is becoming the first country with the highest rate of suicide. Young Koreans have so much pressure from their parents and family, it is really sad.

Japan already does two out of the three suggestions provided at the end of the video: free child care for workers and monthly payments that starts high and ends lower when the kid turns 18. However, the housing issue still stops people from making families, since rents are often a third of a workers salary for small apartments that usually don't allow kids; for that rents are even higher. And buying a home is achievable, but with a lifetime of payments and being in debt. Another hardship still is that unlike your age when you sign-in into student debt (which ALSO is a issue in Japan), mortgage for a home would start at a later stage in life

As a 24 year old American it’s funny to see how the narrative has changed from potentially dealing with overpopulation in the future when I was a kid to countries having to deal with problems of underpopulation now very interesting to live through that change of perspective

As a father of two studying at art school I feel heavely disadvantage in society. A lack the time and energy to keep networking. There is a superficial acceptance of the struggles of having kids but people just expect you to put in more ...

Cost of living. That's literally the main reason

The causes of low birth rates in Korea are very diverse and complex, so it's very challenging to find any solutions. As someone who was born and raised in Korea, I believe that cultural issues are just as significant as economic problems (such as high housing prices and the high cost of living). Korean society is very accustomed to comparisons and competition, and the spread of the internet in modern society has made this even worse. People often compare themselves to others in terms of appearance, wealth, education, and more, sometimes idolizing those they perceive as 'superior' or ridiculing those they consider 'inferior'. Nowadays, many 'mediocre' individuals even think it's better not to have children at all if their child can't be the best. In addition, the rate of childless young adults engaging in romantic relationships has been declining significantly. Many young people are now saying that they would rather stay single if they cannot find a partner who meets their (sometimes unrealistically high) standards.

I'm 22 and can barely afford Gas, let a lone a house, or food for more than 1 person. It's just not worth it

I think it's the housing market tbh, if everyone universally had access to appropriate housing we would not have this problem

As a Korean...2023 Second quarter birth rate was 0.69. It is natural not to have a baby in Korea. People don't want to raise a child in pain. Everyone will understand when they are born and live in Korea. There are too many reasons to explain.

It's amazing how few years ago everyone was so afraid of overpopulation and now we are facing the exact opposite problem.