For a country that has had a fertility rate below replacement for more than 30 years, the people of South Korea seem to be even more hellbent on not having children.
According to the latest data, the country with the lowest fertility rate in the world declined even further to 0.72 children per woman in 2023 from 0.78 in 2022. It’s a dire situation for a nation that is heading for a demographic collapse, as the number of women capable of having children will continue to steadily decline as the years go by.
The decline in the number of children being born is nothing new across the West. In fact, there is not a single developed nation in North America or Europe that has a birthrate above the replacement benchmark of 2.1. But in South Korea, as well as the rest of the Far East, the problem is the most acute, with Japan and China having similarly low birthrates.
But why is this happening? Why are so few people having children when the people in these countries are part of the most successful and wealthiest generation that has ever lived?
In a Reuters report on the declining fertility rate of South Korea, Gwak Tae-hee, a married 34-year-old woman who works as a “junior manager at a Korean dairy product maker,” said this: “Having a baby is on my list, but there’s windows for promotions and I don’t want to be passed over. … I don’t know about elsewhere, but working two or three days a week doesn’t get you anywhere in Korean companies. I hope it’s not too late [to have children] when I try next year or the year after.”
Gwak may not realize it, but her comments on why she has held off on having children betrayed the very mindset that is a major reason why people are not having children. It’s a mindset that boils down to selfishness.
Gwak isn’t waiting to have a child because she has to, she is doing it because she wants to. She is afraid that having a child will mean she is passed over for a job promotion and will affect her career prospects. Her mentality, and those of many other men and women in the developed world, is entirely self-focused.
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Instead of viewing having children as a selfless act to care for another and contribute to the cultural and social prosperity of the community and nation, Gwak and so many others see starting a family as an obstacle to their professional success. They may claim to want children, but their willingness to prioritize their professional success over having children allows no room for that supposed desire to be fulfilled.
When personal goals are so inwardly focused, the goal of creating a flourishing community falls by the wayside. And one day, Gwak will live in a nation with a crumbling economy, crumbling infrastructure, and a dwindling number of old, bitter, and angry people who wonder why later generations were incapable of preserving what they built in the high-rise office buildings of Seoul, Tokyo, and elsewhere.