一口气了解韩国经济

Outlines

00:00

🌏 南 Koreaの経済奇跡とその闇

1960年代に世界で最も貧しい国の一つだった南 Koreaは、30年間で10%の経済成長率を記録し、SamsungやHyundaiなどの世界的な企業を持ち、娯楽産業も世界的に認められています。しかし、国家は財団と政府の勾結によって支配されており、腐敗が蔓延しています。また、開発された国の中では幸福度が最も低く、自殺率が最も高く、出生率が世界で最も低いとされています。また、1910年から半分は日本植民地であり、朝鮮戦争後に北朝鮮と南朝鮮に分かれて、南朝鮮は産業施設がほぼ全て破壊され、非常に貧しくなりました。しかし、米国からの支援によって、政府と企業の勾結が始まり、Chaebol制度が始まりました。

05:01

🏭 財閥(Chaebol)の台頭と経済理論

Park Chung-Heeは特定の人々や企業に責任と資源を与え、産業を発展させました。Samsungなどが政府の支援を受け、国内最大の肥料会社を設立しました。Chaebolは家族経営で政府と密接に結びついており、Zaibatsuとは異なり、銀行業務は行っておらず、政府が銀行業をコントロールしています。Chaebolは国経済を支配し、政府は彼らに資本と影響力を与えます。1965年のトップ100企業は10年後に22社しか残っておらず、Chaebolは国経済を支配し始め、教育の質の高さが東アジア諸国の経済発展の重要な原動力を提供しているとされています。

10:01

💰 外国資本の流入と経済の発展

外国資本の流入が南 Koreaの経済発展の大きな推進力となりました。特にVietnam戦争の際に米国の支援を受け、Hyundaiなどが急速に成長しました。また、日本からの投資も経済発展に寄与しました。1962年から1979年のPark Chung-hee時代には、米国と日本の資本と技術、生産モデルを吸収し、経済を急速に発展させました。27年間の軍事独裁下でGDPが世界的GDPの4分の1未満から2倍以上に成長し、奇跡的と呼ばれるべきです。

15:03

📉 1997年のアジア金融危機とその後の改革

1997年のアジア金融危機により、南 Koreaは深刻な打撃を受け、IMFから58億ドルの援助を受ける必要がありました。銀行業の改革が行われ、Chaebolも55社が破竜しましたが、経済基盤は強固であり、資本流が急速に回復しました。その後、南 Koreaは技術とサービス業に転換し、SamsungやHyundai、LGなどのChaebolが国内だけでなく国際市場でも競争力を持ち続けています。

20:04

🎓 教育熱と社会的階層化

南 Koreaには教育熱があり、学生の生活は試験と私立教育に充てられています。95%以上の学生が補習校に通い、家族の支出の5分の1が教育費に使われています。高学歴を獲得するために、学生は極端な努力を払っていますが、社会は依然として厳しい競争と階層化によって支配されています。Samsungの採用試験に10万人が参加し、そのうちの10%しか採用されません。また、長時間労働や飲酒文化など、社会的なストレスが高まり、出生率の低下を招いています。南 Koreaの出生率は世界的に最も低く、将来的な人口红字化に懸念されます。

Transcripts

Hi,

Today we’ll talk about one

very interesting country

South Korea

During 1960, South Korea was

one of the poorest country in the world

Their GDP is only one third of North Korea

However in the next 30 years

their economy grew

at a rate of 10% per year

GDP growth rate soared

With world-renowned companies

like Samsung and Hyundai

The entertainment industry has also taken the world by storm

It became the 12th largest economy in the world

But South Korea is also dominated by the Chaebol

Collusion between government and business is rife with corruption

There aren't too many presidents who haven't been involved in bribery

Has the lowest happiness index

in the developed world

highest suicide rate

lowest fertility rate in the world

How does it develop so fast while at the same time

the citizens become so unhappy

What makes South Korea

an economy that is so strange

From 1910

Half of the Korea

was colonised by Japan

until the end of WW II in 1945

Korea was divided into two

by 38 degrees north latitude

and formed North Korea and South Korea

From 1950 to 1953,

The three-year Korean War broke out

South Korea's opening hand

could not have been worse

being colonised for over 30 years

and experienced war

almost all their industrial facility

were destroyed

It was the poorest country in the world at that time

GDP per capita was only $67

one-thirtieth that of the United States

They were even poorer than North Korea

That 38 degree line

may look even in terms of size

but North Korea was given

most of the mineral resources

and heavy industries

About 80% of electricity generation

comes from North Korea

Meanwhile at the South

they basically are left with only agriculture

It's maddening

So at that time

some South Korean wanted to sneak into

North Korea because they were too poor

A decade before South Korea independent

they were called as First Republic

South Korea was under

dictatorship of first president

Syngman Rhee

Do you think this is the time when

South Korea begins to rise?

No

Syngman Rhee’s government didn’t try

to improve basic infrastructure

So how did South Korea survive then?

Most of their foreign reserve

and 80% of their government’s income

were from US

Due to over-dependent

on overseas capital

this distorted economic situation

became a source of

a phenomenon we mentioned

few times before

Crony Capitalism

Collusion between government and business

Everything depends on money

This also fosters many

companies with government links

like Samsung and LG

The first batch of Chaebol in South Korea

We all know that South Korea's chaebol system

is at its peak

but at the time it was still at the early stage

let’s take it slowly.

In sum, during Syngman Rhee’s time

South Korea economy

was not improved

The real GDP growth rate per capita

was only 2%

In 1961

There was a general called Park Chung-Hee

There was a general called Park Chung-Hee

launched a coup and

ruled South Korea for 18 years.

When you hear Warlord

it sounds like a suppressed economy

Let me tell you this

Park Chung-Hee is different

You must remember

his name because

this is an important figure

for South Korea

From 1961, during his reign

South Korea’s economy begin to develop rapidly

From a country relying on the relief of the United States,

to

one of Four Asian Tigers

This development is known as the Miracle on the Han River

Park Chung-Hee was the founder of

Miracle on the Han River

You might think that

today’s content is putting

Park Chung-Hee on a high position

Afterall this is a dictatorship

All kinds of suppression, arbitrary exclusion of dissent and so on

were still a problem

However today

we’ll talk on the economy side

He did lead South Korea

and made a comeback

So most South Koreans

are still thankful to Park Chung-Hee

The reviews have been pretty positive

Although Park Chung-Hee

was not economically savvy

but his vision was unique

and has long-term view

He took the problem at the root

He knew that with South Korea’s

precarious situation

everyone had eyes on him

The internal political situation is also extremely unstable

In his words

you can only live like a beggar

depending on US

This certainly won’t do

To stabilise the politic

and fight against North Korea

They need to develop the economy

Stability in economy

Independent in economy

So he really focused on economic development

and vowed to pull South Korea

out of poverty

In January 1962

Park Chung-Hee proposed

the first 5-year plan which

established the overall development direction of South Korea

and that is export-led

and industrial-led economy

Although there were many problems

while executing this plan

but their GDP rate

achieved 8.3%

Export growth rate reached 29%

The next 5 year plan

was even greater

Average annual GDP growth rate

reached a staggering 11.5%

With the gradual accumulation of Korean technology

at the end of Park Jung-Hee era

including Chun Doo-Hwan era

South Korea successfully transitioned to heavy industry

Like steel, shipbuilding, mechatronics

they are top exporters in the world

it is really

The first 5 year plan proposed by Park Jung-Hee

Export and industrial led

were deepened all the way

Looking at the

global situation at the time

especially South Korea’s

geopolitical position

their policy in focusing on

export and industrial is not strange

This was what Japan was doing

The point is how do you execute the plan

fast and accurately

once you have the target

Almost every 5 year plan

has exceeded the goal.

this is the difficult part

also the point where I think

Park Chung-Hee is incredible at

So how did he do it?

I conclude that

He benefited from two pillars and one push

Let’s look at the first pillar,

This is actually

does not conform with

free competition, survival of the fittest

as often said in economy

Park Chun-hee was a warlord after all

He didn’t practice

policy support

or encourage SME

and hoping one giant will emerge

in few years’ time

He set a target

distribute it to a few specific people and

specific companies to execute it

For example if he wanted to develop fertilizer industry

then he will find the most capable

and most obedient company

like Samsung

He will give full policy support

and preferential on loan

Just get on this big project

and develop fertilizers factories

so that South Korea can enter

self-sufficiency state the soonest

On one hand, Samsung really has strong capability

on another

they have the strongest policy support

so Samsung managed to establish

largest fertilizer company in the country

See this precise regulation

is actually

highly efficient for

Park Chung-Hee’s government

Responsibility is also very clear

If they want to develop one industry

just find a company

or one person in charge

to manage it well

So under this model, it foster

a large batch of mega corporation

which is the first pillar of

Park Chung-Hee economy theory

Chaebol

This officially opened

the pandora box of Chaebol system

What is a Chaebol

are all big companies Chaebol?

Not really

There are many big companies

Many countries have big companies

But when we mention Chaebol

the first country comes to mind is South Korea

So definition for Chaebol

is not as simple as just big

Lin concluded that

the real chaebols have two major characteristics

: one is that they are

One is it’s familial

So these South Korea Chaebol

are actually controlled by family members

at the same time closely linked to government

A mega corporation

Doesn’t it

sound similar to Japan’s

Zaibatsu

actually there are some similarity

but the biggest difference is that

Zaibatsu’s core

is a giant bank

expanding business

South Korea’s Chaebol they don’t have bank business

Banking Industry

had been under Park Chung-Hee’s control

This is one of the way he could

control these

Chaebol

Actually when he first reign

one of the thing he did

was to punish

Chaebol in Syngman Rhee’s era

He punished many of them and

even jailed 51

of those business tycoons

One of them included

head of Samsung Lee Byung-chul

However after communicating with Lee Byung-Chul

Park Chung-Hee changed his attitude

180 degree

He decided to work with chaebol

and use them more than ever before

So each important industry in South Korea

are slowly being controlled by these Chaebol

The largest ones are

Samsung, LG, Hyundai

Hanjin, Daewoo and etc

The government has the chaebol in tight grip

through their banking system

Government decides whom they should loan money to and

interest rate is decided by the government

So these chaebol of course

would suck up to the government

because Chaebol needs government support

to get capital and policy

Government needs

Chaebol’s money and influence

to help them control and

oppress competitors

The trading of power and money

on and off the table became

more and more common

collusion between the government and the business

When you hear the word collusion

definitely not a very good word

But for people like Park Chung-Hee and Chun Doo-Hwan

military dictatorship

they wanted to develop economy

through this kind of collusion

because their target is very clear

that is to develop economy

so Chaebol with full government support

needs to come out with good result

if not they’ll be removed

or not getting any support

someone else will get it instead

So during that era

The Chaebol in South Korea

had been constantly changing

In 1965

Top 100 companies

only left with 22 companies

after a decade

Since then, large Korean companies

have maintained such a turnover rate

There are some companies that are strong

and have certain means

have managed to developed well for the past 30 years

For example, in South Korea there’s someone

called Chung Ju-yung

He has very strong capability, focus on infrastructure

He helped US military and Korean government on

some infrastructure projects

like constructing buildings, bridges and etc

Park Chung-hee realised that

he is very efficient

and always finish ahead of schedule

So he decided to

fully support Chung Ju-yung

and let his company become

the giant in South Korea infrastructure industry

This company later became

Hyundai group

In 1967,

Park Chung-hee learnt from

their neighbour Japan

to start automobile industry

so he asked Chung Ju-yung

bro, do you want to get into automobile industry

Chung Ju-yung said okay let me try

So he established Hyundai Motor Corporation

Due to their outstanding performance

they’ve been getting full support from government

becoming top chaebol in South Korea

This is just an example

In many of the ever-changing chaebol in South Korea

Four of them keep growing

and became top four chaebol in South Korea

Samsung, Hyundai, LG, SK,

Take note here

There are two misconception when we

talk about chaebol

One is that you may think that

chaebol is equal to monopoly

actually it’s not like that

Park Chung-hee was aware how monopoly

could be destructive to an economy

Although he still fully support certain corporation

but in overall he still supported competition

Try not to let an industry be monopolized

by only one company

This is why

these chaebol

keeps changing

Another misconception is that chaebol equal to corruption

Collusion between government and business

could only means corruption right

but there’s a difference

Corruption generally means

a system in overall is corrupted

from top to bottom

whatever you do needs money

this is corruption

but it’s not the case with South Korea at the time

There are some major transaction

at the top level decision making

Later of course

slowly developed into something else

we’ll talk about this later

we’ll talk about this later

We were talking about chaebol system

and how it is the pillar to South Korea

rapid rise

Actually

there’s another invisible pillar

that is education

You know that South Korea and Japan

as well as China at a later time

have all experienced miraculous economy development

I believe education

is one of the very important driving forces behind it,

or can be said

one of the most important driving forces.

You can see that

When the country is underdeveloped

when income per capita is very low

the quality of the population is very high and

and education level is high

this means you can find

high quality but cheap labour

in these countries

so they become

world factory

This is highly related to culture

I don’t know if you noticed that

compared to other countries in the world

East Asian culture focus more on education

If you can nurture a college graduate

you can be proud

If you can be a professor

then you’ll be the pride of the family

Social status is important

doesn’t matter how much you earn

We’re getting far

It was like this for South Korea at the time

After war ended

Education level

began to increase rapidly.

During Park Chung-hee era

he established

The development strategy of building a nation through education

one fifth of government budget

goes to education

Moreover they are hardworking

you can use one tenth of the cost

to create 2.5 times production

of US workers

using South Korean workers

It’s impossible if they don’t rise with this

We’ve talked about the two pillars

The big push is actually foreign capital

We mentioned earlier that

during Syngman Rhee era

they actually

rely heavily on US support

US is no fool

they can’t keep

sending money to South Korea

during the late Syngman Rhee era

we can already see

that US was reducing the monetary support to South Korea

During Park Chung-hee era

he was not happy with South Korea getting money

from US

the early days, he even restricted

foreign capital including those from US and Japan

to enter South Korea

Then why did I say

the push for Miracle on the Han River is foreign capital?

This is because

there was a very important war

Vietnam war

Vietnam war

From 1955 to 1975

a war that lasted over two decades

South Korea provided over 300,000 soldiers

to support US

this can be counted as

using power of entire nation to help US

so as compensation

US government compensate South Korea with

large amount of monetary support

technical support and order

Many infrastructure project in Vietnam

was given directly to Hyundai

including infrastructure projects in Middle East

was handed to South Korea specifically Hyundai

under US support

This is why

Hyundai can rise so rapidly

Because Hyundai

covered the infrastructure projects in Middle East

that they managed to escape

the strike of

two oil crises on the 80s

South Korea, a country that is

a pure oil importing country

and export-led nation

While US and EU was heavily impacted during oil crisis

South Korea should be affected as well

but in the 80s

They maintained

10% of GDP growth rate

due to one reason

that is oil crisis caused

Middle East to earn so much money that they invested in building infrastructure

the money was earned by South Korea

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa

Kuala Lumpur’s Twin Tower

Taipei 101

were all constructed by Samsung Group

These are some of the

best construction projects in the world

can you see how competitive South Korean companies are

We were talking about foreign capital from US

actually for South Korea

another big foreign capital is

Japan

Although historically

South Korea and Japan have been having animosity towards each other

but in the face of economy development

and of course money

they would work together

South Korea

opened up investment channel for Japan

That was during

the era of Japan miraculous economic rise

The demand was certainly huge

Japan was world factory

and South Korea was small World factory

at the same time was Japan’s factory

In sum

From 1962 to 1979

throughout entire Park Chung-hee’s era

South Korea absorbed capital and technology

from US and Japan

as well as production model

It is definitely the most direct booster

for its economic development

From 1961 to 1987

27 years of military dictatorship

South Korea GDP per capita

grew from

less than a quarter of global GDP per capita

to double the global GDP per capita

It’s no wonder it’s being

called as miraculous

Due to pressure from many sides

to reinstate democratic presidential election

the democratic election of the president

and enter democracy era

At that time, the whole world was promoting

liberalisation and encourage competition

South Korea followed the trend

and welcomed another rapid growth

During the first 5 year plan

Average GDP was at 10%

GDP climbed to the 15th place in the world

Sounds amazing right

But this time South Korea was already

eroded from the bottom

bit by bit

and spread to every corner of the country

This goes back to the chaebol

This goes back to the chaebol

Chaebol was already rampant since the beginning

so why does the erosion begin later?

This is a bit different

during military dictatorship

chaebol cozied up with warlord

and warlord gave benefits to chaebol

just transaction at the top

now that they are entering democratic election

everything changes

Probably South Korean was traumatised

by dictators and colonizers,

this time the legislation stated that

the President can only sit for 5 years

and cannot be re-elected

In other word

For each President

no matter they are good or bad

they only get 5 years

the seat is not even warm yet and they’ll have to go

This can certainly prevent dictator

but the President

keeps changing

the only one that remain unchanged is

the Chaebol

Before this Chaebol had

to care what

Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan think

pressured by the warlord

Now they’re gone

the financial system no longer regulating them

the government also changes every 5 years

so they won’t form a strong government

However chaebol remain unchanged

so they can use bribery

to manipulate elections

If the president

got elected on his own merits

then he could possibly fight

the chaebol

If he got elected

with the help of chaebol throughout election

or that he couldn’t possibly get elected

without chaebol

then there’s no way

he would sanction

the chaebol during his presidency

Almost every South Korean President

were exposed with

their family or themselves taking bribe

The people called this as

curse of Blue House

During military dictatorship

although chaebol has great influence

but corruption wasn’t that bad

however during democratic period

the chaebol extended their hands

to every corner

in the government

and even inside judiciary department

Chaebol’s grip on the entire nation’s

economy

as well as policy and judiciary system

are getting stronger

You see before 1985

chaebol continued to change

but after 1985

The Four chaebol

hasn’t changed till now

ever standing

You don’t need to know the details

to be able to imagine

how much shady business inside there

In terms of economy

Chaebol’s power grew

stronger than ever

In 1990, the output value created by 5 chaebol

Samsung, LG, SK, Hyundai, Lotte

has occupied two third of

total national GDP

There’s nothing you can do with these corporations

Even if you are determined to restructure it

you can’t do much

because South Korea’s economy

relied on them

so these chaebols

are expanding even more rampantly

Using the liberalisation of financial market

to increase leverage and borrow as much as possible

they even expanded a lot of subsidiaries

As South Korea

liberalise their market

Another problem began

to slowly surface

and that is their banking system

We mentioned many times how important

banking system is

Actually during military dictatorship

Park Chung-hee was quite clever

he used the banking system

to control these chaebol

and control the bank on his own hands

and control the lifeline of the economy

In long-term this strategy

has a huge negative impact

The banking system

had been protected and guaranteed

by the government

which reduce their competitiveness

causing money to be given to people

who shouldn't be getting it

Those who really need to borrow money

won’t be getting it

So what would these people do

They developed a very new

financial model

called Jeonse model

This is the cause

of South Korea’s real estate crisis

happening this year

This thing

is related to banking system

we’ll talk a little bit about it

In normal rental

tenant pays to landlord monthly

say $5000 rental fee

but in Jeonse model

If the house is valued at $1 million

tenant wanted to rent for two years

then they’ll have to pay

say $600,000

as deposit

In these two years

tenant don’t have to pay rental

and two years later when tenant wanted to move

landlord will give back all $600,000

So what is the relation between

Jeonse and bank?

If I have a property

I can get money from the bank through mortgage

but due to bank’s inefficiency

they don’t loan money to these people

they use Jeonse model

to get a mortgage from a tenant

this is a rather novel way

but the problem is that

as a landlord

I spent $1 million to buy a house

when it’s rented out

I’ll get $600,000

this will cause

Serious real estate speculation

Look at South Korea’s debt-to-GDP ratio

keeps climbing up

even surpass 100% mark

What does this 100% means?

US, a country that loves to play on leverage

during the peak of subprime mortgage crisis

the ratio didn’t even reach 100%

now it’s at 74%

You can see

Jeonse model widened the leverage in South Korea

What is the nemesis of leverage

interest rates hike

For the past two years, South Korea suddenly increased interest rates rapidly

the leverage couldn’t hold

In a year, house prices fell by 30%

turnover rate dropped by 70%

.Of course

Jeonse model is another big topic

we won’t get into details today

We’ll talk about it in future

Alright, the relatively backward

banking industry

apart from causing Jeonse model problem

caused another direct problem

In 1997

The financial crisis swept Asia

Southeast Asian countries collapsed one after another

The market thought that

a strong economy like South Korea

won’t be affected much

but it fell hard

The capital wanted

to try striking on it

who knew that these chaebol

actually depended heavily on taking loan

their subsidiaries are not earning profit

They managed to survive through very low

bank loan

The bank used to be supported by government

so they were recklessly loaning out money

now that the strike hit home

banks and many chaebol

faced capital chain crisis

This brought

the entire South Korean economy under the water

South Korea had to borrow from IMF

$58 billion

This is the largest loan IMF had ever

given out at that time

Of course

after 1998 financial crisis

South Korea did reform

the banking industry in large scale

But the banking industry

tends to have

butterfly effect

So you can only reform it step by step

and the step cannot be too big

So until now

compared to

other developed economy

South Korea’s banking industry is their weakness

On Chaebol side

everyone thought

the ever standing chaebol wouldn’t fall

After financial crisis

there are 55 corporations bankrupted

One of them includes

South Korea’s second largest chaebol Daewoo

It was also the largest bankruptcy in

South Korea's history at the time.

And Samsung Motors, which was just established

also completely collapsed.

This become Samsung’s

most embarrassing

failure case

South Korea’s GDP

fell by 5.1% in 1998

Many chaebold had to

severe from

their subsidiaries

Some foreign capitals

and companies

that were doing well

took the opportunity

For example

Hyundai acquired Kia

and monopolise South Korea’s automobile market

However South Korea’s economic foundation

is strong in overall

their capital flow

recovered very fast

after the financial crisis

the overall size of the chaebol

did reduced compared to

before 1997

but their overall position are unshakeable

Currently in South Korea stock market

In top 50 companies

47 of them are chaebol

Actually after financial crisis

South Korea’s economy development

have been quite fast

although not as fast as during Miracle on the Han River

with double digits growth

but they are also successfully transformed to

technology and service industry

Companies like Samsung, Hyundai, LG

not only competitive domestically

even in international market

they are able to compete

The sectors that these chaebol are involved in

are actually South Korea’s strength industries

like electronics, ship building

automobile, chips and etc

South Korea GDP per capita

grow to $35000

catching up with Japan

From the data,

South Korea’s economic miracle seems to be continuing

Behind all these numbers

Just like we mentioned earlier

Among developed countries, South Korea has

the highest suicide rate

lowest happiness index

and longest working hours

Actually these are

the consequences of Miracle on the Han River

that are slowly emerging

One of the cause of these problems

is the chaebol’s control

on politics and economy

that causes class stratification in the economy

The powerful chaebol

distorted and suppressed market competition

From a short-term overall point of view

this doesn’t seem to be a big problem

the chaebol indeed are developing fast

but in long-term

many South Korean ordinary workers

their choices are limited

It’s like all their target

are incredibly unanimous

Attend good high school

get good grades to go good university

work hard to get into the top four chaebol

and work harder to get into management

Regardless it’s from culture

or from the entire system

South Korean have an excessive

pursue towards education

There’s a term called Education Fever

Education Fever

This term is specifically used to describe South Korean’s

students’ life

is basically filled with examination and tuition

Over 95% of the students

participate in extra classes

in Koreans, it’s called Hagwon

For South Korean family

one fifth of their expenditure

goes to these extra classes

Many South Korean high schoolers

have to get up at 5 or 6 in the morning to go to school

after school ended

they have to take self-lesson till 11 or 12 in the night

Not only that

they have to go to Hagwon

and studied until 2 or 3 in the morning

Their ultimate target is

to get into the top 3 school in South Korea

Seoul National University

Korea University and Yonsei University

In short SKY

All students work their ass off

just to get into SKY

Do you think when you get into SKY

you can finally relax

in your dream

You are still walking on tight rope

because after you graduate

you need to try your hardest to get into

the top 4 chaebol

Every year Samsung will

conduct a test for the graduates

About 100,000 people showed up for the test

And in these 100,000 people

only less than 10% of them will be selected

If you can get into Samsung after you graduated

your family will be so proud of you

After you get into companies like Samsung and Hyundai

you still have to

work your way through the corporate ladder

slowly climbing your way up

South Korea has the longest average

working hours of any developed country

Not only long working hours

similar to Japan

you have to go socialise after work

and they have a drinking culture

most of it are semi compulsory

This stratified social ladder

makes South Korean

spend all their life working very hard

Whatever you do

there’ll be a unified standard

everyone fighting to go through the same bridge

Although GDP goes up

but their people are under a lot of pressure

Working hard in education and at work

bring a lot of pressure

and negative emotion for South Koreans

This might not reflect in economy data

like GDP, unemployment rate

in economic data such as GDP, unemployment rate, and inflation,

but its impact is way bigger for modern South Korean

especially their younger population

I randomly asked a few

of my Korean friends

all of them felt the same way

living in South Korea is too depressive

There’s always that one unified standard

that restrain you

everyone is on a rat race

the society is filled with hostility

the rat race and low happiness index

lead to another

serious problem,

which is the decline in birth rate.

Everyone is so busy at work

they don’t have the extra energy

to give birth and care for their children

Even if they choose to give birth

parents will have to worry for their children

whether they can enter SKY, enter Samsung

Better not give birth at all

South Korea’s birth rate is only 0.84

Normally birth rate needs to be slightly more than 2

to ensure population remain unchanged

below 1.5 is considered as

low birth rate

South Korea’s 0.84 is the lowest in the world

You can imagine the pressure behind it

Take a look at South Korea’s population structure

We're looking at this again

the bottom is rapidly decreasing

If we compare their birth rate

with Japan

the shape is familiar right

the only difference is the time

Look at Japan’s population structure

The big part is age 70 - 75

This means there was a population boom

around 70 to 75 years ago

That happened to be after WW II

The era where Japan’s economy was rising

everyone was giving birth

Look at South Korea

The big part is age 60s

This was during the 1960s

during Park Chung-hee’s dictatorship

the beginning of Miracle on the Han River

Did you notice

from population structure

you can basically guess

a country’s history and economy

Looking at South Korea’s population structure

it looks nice currently

the middle part is big

they are all at working age

creating GDP

There are very few old people and children

that need support

With such population structure

it’s no wonder they can develop so fast

In another 20 – 30 years

when new born number drastically decreasing

When these young people enter old age

this is not optimistic

South Korea is an economic body

that is rather strange

A booming economy with high suicide rate

High technology and innovation but controlled by chaebol

Among these chaebol

one that we are most familiar with

also the one

we mentioned most today

Samsung

It is a

very incredible company

it has been standing since

South Korea independence

Presidents, warlords come and go

but Samsung is still here

60 years ago they were at the top

now they still are

It’s not a big deal for a company to last 60 – 70 years

but to remain at the top for so long

it’s really rare

So now many

calls South Korea as Republic of Samsung

How did they

stand at the top, manage the warlords

How did the three generations of Samsung leaders

fight for legitimacy

How did the Samsung leader got sentenced many times

yet released once and once again

Stay tuned for next episode

The Dark Giant: Samsung