Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nautilus]

Personally I think there are too many people and korea is too overcrowded...so why the push to increase the birth rate?

South Koreas population hits 49 million

Roughly 450,000 babies were born last year. That figure was up 2.23 percent from the previous year, but was a sharp drop from the 1980s, during which an average 750,000 babies were born annually.

The number of births versus deaths suggested the country will have to wait five years to reach the population milestone of 50 million.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/189717.html

http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/newsview_sub.php?menu=4&key=20

[VanIslander]

[nautilus]

[VanIslander]

[Leslie Cheswyck]

When they get to 50, sell!

[jinju]

Why increase the birthrate, well, um, have you turned on that brain of yours lately?

1. People die.
2. The less people born the older the average of the population gets.
3. The older the average age, the more people who dont contribute anything to the economy.
4. The more old, uncontributing people the bigger the burden on the younger.
5. People die. When the old people die off, and if there arent enough younger people to replace them, the population decreases rapidly.
6. Having less people means you cant support the same size economy.

Is that easy to understand?

if only 1 person is being born per couple that means this country is in for a sharp reduction of population in a very short time down the road.

Seriously, how did you ever get a degree? This isnt the first thread of yours thats making me ask that question.

[nautilus]

Korea is one of the most densely populated counries on earth.

But your idea is to make it even more so?

Compare it to your home countries for a second. Compare their surface area and population.Where would you rather live?

Having lived on geoje-do, van islander, and coming from a country famous for its space and natural beauty, I am really surprised you want to replace the last patches of intensively utilised korean countryside with more smog-filled cities.

[jinju]

[nautilus]

Let me give some examples of how the burgeoning korean population and hyper-development has harmed the environment in the past 3 years. its been a very rapid, uncontrolled trashing of the environment.

1) Construction: the massive and politically powerful construction business here have undertaken many reckless and unbridled projects, many of them needles "make work' schemes to keep people in jobs. I have seen mountains carved up and gouged away for building materials; riverbanks and streams concreted and banked into lifeless trenches: formerly charming and scenic coastal views ruined overnight by ugly construction projects and seemingly pointless roadbuilding. in one case, a road was built to connect just one house- in the process of which a whole hillside and wood was bulldozed into oblivion. Areas of natural beauty and solitude have been bulldozed and in their place, "peoples parks" of concrete, a few swings and so on with the resultant noise from loudspeakers and hordes of people.

2) Coastline; if you take a boat journey along any of koreas coastline, you will see that every available inch of sea is fouled by endless driftnets that catch and kill every living thing. To add to it, the estuaries have all been reclaimed and built on, and more needless roads and harbors built everywhere. Most of these projects are simply to line the pockets of a few businessmen, and they sit idle after completion.

3) Liesure industry: koreans have suddenly transformed their last areas of natural scenery into numerous golf courses. Another one is to open up every last pond or stretch of river into an overcrowded fishing resort. You can't go anywhere in countryside without hordes of people being there already- making noise, playing radios etc. If you want to climb a mountain, there will be not a moments peace: the tracks are used by the new quad-bike obsession or armies of hikers with loudspeakers.


Its blatantly obvious to anyone who has been here longer than a year- koreans are busy turning their country into a massive, sterile parking lot. A gigantic concrete monolith. A really ugly sight. there are something like 90 more cars on the road every day in Gyeonggi province. Travel by road is virtually pointless at weekends or holidays, you are left sitting in traffic jams for hours or trickling along at 10mph.


its madness.

Korea needs less people and less development. Not more.

My definition of an ideal situation is not simply the highest number of people per square kilometre (as seems to be your recomendation). Its a matter of quality of life, spatial distribution, and healthy environment. From what I can see, korea is making the classic development mistakes and doing it in overdrive. i'm surprised you can't see that.

[Octavius Hite]

Jinju (and this is killing me to type this) is right, despite his snotty attitude and way of putting it, the population is both aging and the birthrate is declining. If something is not done the Korean economy could grind to a halt.

However, there is another way to prevent this rather than having more babies. The solution is immigration. There are plenty of people in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines that would love to immigrate and become a Korean. That said, we all know where this will go, Koreans are loath to give up their "one race" crap.

[jinju]

[jinju]

[nautilus]

[jinju]

Now there I can agree.

[Octavius Hite]

Jinju wrote: