韓國對亞洲出生率危機的激進解決方案
South Korea’s Radical Solution to Asia’s Birth Rate Crisis
譯文簡介
韓國正面臨一個人口定時炸彈。該國正在應對全球最低的生育率和快速老齡化的人口，這威脅到了它的未來。這一危機反映了全球趨勢，東亞地區(qū)受影響最為嚴重，迫使人們在傳統(tǒng)和現(xiàn)代女性現(xiàn)實之間做出抉擇。韓國現(xiàn)在做出的選擇可能為其他國家提供一條可借鑒的道路。
正文翻譯
韓國正面臨一個人口定時炸彈。該國正在應對全球最低的生育率和快速老齡化的人口，這威脅到了它的未來。這一危機反映了全球趨勢，東亞地區(qū)受影響最為嚴重，迫使人們在傳統(tǒng)和現(xiàn)代女性現(xiàn)實之間做出抉擇。韓國現(xiàn)在做出的選擇可能為其他國家提供一條可借鑒的道路。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://top-shui.cn 轉載請注明出處
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://top-shui.cn 轉載請注明出處
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South Korea is facing a demographic time bomb. The nation is grappling with the world’s lowest fertility rate and a rapidly aging population, which threaten its very future. The unfolding crisis mirrors a global trend that’s hitting East Asia hardest, forcing a reckoning between tradition and modern day realities for women. The choices South Korea makes now might provide a path for others to follow.
韓國正面臨一個人口定時炸彈。該國正在應對全球最低的生育率和快速老齡化的人口，這威脅到了它的未來。這一危機反映了全球趨勢，東亞地區(qū)受影響最為嚴重，迫使人們在傳統(tǒng)和現(xiàn)代女性現(xiàn)實之間做出抉擇。韓國現(xiàn)在做出的選擇可能為其他國家提供一條可借鑒的道路。
I’m always surprised by how countries direct response to declining birth rates is to strongly promote marriage and higher birth rates, rather than addressing the deeper, underlying causes of the decline.
This reminds me of a high school near San Francisco that I once read about. Known for its reputation and top-achieving, straight-A students, it imposed intense academic and social pressures on their students. These demands tragically led to a high rate of suicides. So in response, the school hired someone to monitor a nearby train track often used in these suicides, in hope that he would stop them in their act.. instead of actually addressing the issue
我總是驚訝于各國對生育率下降的直接反應是大力推動婚姻和提高生育率，而不是解決更深層次的根本原因。
這讓我想起了我曾經(jīng)讀到的一所舊金山附近的高中，這所學校以其聲譽和成績優(yōu)異的學生而聞名，但它對學生施加了巨大的學術和社會壓力。這些要求悲劇性地導致了高自殺率。作為回應，學校雇了一個人去監(jiān)控附近常用于自殺的火車軌道，希望他能阻止這些行為……而不是真正解決問題。
I am korean, we are doomed since all our politicians are super old rich men only. They will NEVER in a million year understand what is wrong.
我是韓國人，我們注定要完蛋，因為我們的政客都是超級富有的老男人，他們永遠也不會理解問題出在哪里。
-We need to raise the birthrate
-So we are going to increase wages and reduce working hours
Nah, lets do Tinder in real life
-我們需要提高生育率
-所以我們要增加工資并減少工作時間
-不，我們還是做現(xiàn)實版的Tinder吧
4:38 Notice the decline from 2023 to 2024. Coincidentally, in 2023, the S. Korean government considered raising the cap on weekly work hours from 52 to 69. The measure was defeated but the message was loud and clear--the government cares more about the chaebols and corporations than it does S. Korean families.
4:38 注意從2023年到2024年的下降。巧合的是，2023年，韓國政府曾考慮將每周工作時間上限從52小時提高到69小時。該措施被否決了，但信息響亮而明確——政府更關心財閥和企業(yè)而不是韓國家庭。
South Korea is suffering now because they're working just as hard as they did when they came out of the Korean war. We're talking minimum 52 hour workweeks and last year they were trying to raise it to 69. Add that to their rent market that requires a deposit like you own a house and the general high cost of housing.. Koreans cannot afford kids both in money and in time.
韓國現(xiàn)在正在受苦，因為他們像朝鮮戰(zhàn)爭結束后一樣努力工作。我們說的是每周至少52小時的工作時間，而去年他們還試圖將其提高到69小時。再加上他們的租房市場要求像買房一樣的押金以及普遍高昂的住房成本……韓國人在金錢和時間上都負擔不起孩子。
The younger generation isn't getting married or having children because the older generation got all the power and resources, and refuses to give it up. It's the same story in the U.S. and other developed countries with declining birth rates.
年輕一代不結婚或不生孩子，因為老一輩掌握了所有的權力和資源并且拒絕放棄，這在美國和其他生育率下降的發(fā)達國家也是一樣的故事。
Simple. We humans are seen as cogs in the wheel to keep the system going. Bringing a child into this world should be the mother and fathers choice and the enjoyment of raising a child should be their priority. The policymakers instead overlook the expensive nature and pressure of society and just worry about making babies to keep the system going. That in and of itself takes away the pleasure of having and raising children.
很簡單，我們人類被視為維持系統(tǒng)運轉的齒輪。把孩子帶到這個世界上應該是父母的選擇，撫養(yǎng)孩子的樂趣應該是他們的優(yōu)先事項。然而，政策制定者忽視了社會的昂貴本質和壓力，只關心生孩子以維持系統(tǒng)運轉，這本身就剝奪了生育和撫養(yǎng)孩子的樂趣。
As a South Korean, there is an another unspoken reason for this phenomenon. Our generation is not sure that we can provide all financial&social supports to our children as much as we have received from our parents.
作為一名韓國人，這種現(xiàn)象還有另一個不言而喻的原因，即我們這一代人不確定我們能否像父母為我們提供的那樣，為我們的孩子提供所有的經(jīng)濟和社會支持。
Low birth rate, aging population, suicide rate, elderly poverty rate are the highest in the world.
Both conservatives and progressives do not think about solving this problem, but only work hard to get elected,
and show off.
I worked over 15 hours every day while skipping lunch,
"That's just how it is", "There are many people who can do it even if you don't", "You came to our company because you had nowhere else to go"
It's disgusting and shameful, so I gave up on marriage and live.
In return for treating the 586 generation as expendable,
My children pay 3 times the amount of taxes, but the national pension and health insurance are bankrupt.
韓國的低生育率、老齡化人口、自殺率、老年貧困率都是世界最高的。
保守派和進步派都不考慮解決這個問題，而是只努力爭取當選并炫耀。
我每天工作超過15小時，甚至不吃午飯。
“這就是現(xiàn)實”，“你不干，有的是人干”，“你來我們公司是因為你無處可去”。
這令人作嘔和羞恥，所以我放棄了婚姻和生活。
作為將586一代視為可犧牲的回報，我的孩子支付了三倍的稅款，但國家養(yǎng)老金和醫(yī)療保險卻破產(chǎn)了。
I lived about 35km outside of Seoul, and the school that I taught at many families had 2-3 kids. That was quite unreal to me. If the Korean government can finally move all organs of government out to Sejong, and empty out Seoul, I think it would encourage more people to have more children naturally, if they can just get spiralling cram school (hagwon) costs under control and also to empower public school teachers to do the jobs that they were trained to do. Korea's public schools are private schools in other countries.
我住在首爾外約35公里的地方，我教的學校有很多家庭有2-3個孩子，這對我來說很不真實。如果韓國政府最終能將所有政府機構從首爾遷到世宗市并清空首爾，我認為這將鼓勵更多人自然生育更多孩子，只要他們能控制住補習班（學院）的飛漲成本并賦予公立學校教師做他們受過培訓的工作的權力。韓國的公立學校在其他國家就是私立學校。
Extremely lazy journalism at its worst. It's like Bloomberg sent 1 person to Korea for 5 minutes and interviewed only their friends, touching on only the most trendy, fashionable issues. The woman who said "marriage is sacrificing oneself" clued you in to the real issue at hand, but you just ignored that completely.
這是極其懶惰的新聞工作，就像彭博社派了一個人去韓國待了5分鐘，只采訪了他們的朋友，觸及的只是最時髦、時尚的問題。那位說“婚姻是犧牲自己”的女性已經(jīng)暗示了當前的真實問題，但你完全忽略了這一點。
The solution isnt hard.
Mandatory maternal and paternal paid leaves. Country wide policy.
More affordable and accessible child care. Tax cuts for the families
More affordable and accessible first time homes. Home loan incentives
Boom birth rate raises dramatically
解決方案并不難。
全國性的強制性帶薪產(chǎn)假和陪產(chǎn)假。
更實惠和可及的托兒服務，對家庭的稅收減免。
更實惠和可及的首次購房，住房貸款激勵。
生育率就會大幅上升。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://top-shui.cn 轉載請注明出處
Corporations need more workers to keep increasing profits. Governments need citizens to bring in taxes. However increased profits means increased prices and so couples feel they don't have the disposable income to handle the costs of raising a child. They needed women to join the workforce to maintain the upward trajectories on shareholders reports. And yet they expected women to keep pumping out kids at the same rate and not pursue careers like men would. Maybe this is just the system self-correcting from capitalism? This is playing out at different levels all across the developed world. Fascinating stuff.
公司需要更多的工人來保持利潤增長，政府需要公民來繳納稅款。然而，利潤增加意味著價格上漲，因此夫妻們覺得他們沒有可支配收入來承擔撫養(yǎng)孩子的費用。他們需要女性加入勞動力隊伍以維持股東報告中的上升趨勢。然而，他們卻期望女性以同樣的速度生孩子而不是像男性一樣追求事業(yè)。也許這只是資本主義系統(tǒng)的自我修正？這在整個發(fā)達國家以不同層次上演。真是令人著迷的事情。
Everyone is (rightly) talking about the workloads hours, but very few people addresses that one of the reasons korean women are not interested in building a family is due to rhe rampant sexisms in korea
每個人都在（正確地）談論工作時間，但很少有人提到韓國女性對建立家庭不感興趣的原因之一是韓國普遍存在的性別歧視。
Low birthrates are not bad, they are just a threat to the current system of capitalism based on infinite growth.
Low birthrates will exacerbate political systems that benefits an older and richer generation, and will also reduce the quality of pensions, but from a purely social and scientific context, a lot won't change.
低生育率并不壞，它們只是對基于無限增長的當前資本主義體系的威脅。
低生育率將加劇有利于老一輩和更富有一代的政治體系并降低養(yǎng)老金的質量，但從純粹的社會和科學角度來看，很多事情不會改變。
Middle class people didn't used to have to choose between the lifestyle they want, and children. Now however, all but the wealthiest people have to make massive financial sacrifices to have children that will materially lower their standard of living. The MSM needs to stop pretending that the issue is complicated, it's super simple and there are very obvious things governments can do if they really wanted to fix the problem.
中產(chǎn)階級過去不必在他們想要的生活方式和孩子之間做出選擇。然而現(xiàn)在，除了最富有的人之外，所有人都必須做出巨大的經(jīng)濟犧牲來生孩子，這將實質性地降低他們的生活水平。主流媒體需要停止假裝這個問題很復雜，它非常簡單，如果政府真的想解決問題，有很多顯而易見的事情可以做。
one solution could be that government takes effort to spread the population throughout korea rather then concentrating in seoul by moving main federal offices to other cities where the housing costs and living expenses are cheaper then seoul.
一個解決方案可能是政府努力將人口分散到韓國各地，而不是集中在首爾，通過將主要聯(lián)邦辦公室遷到住房成本和生活費用比首爾便宜的其他城市。
I mean having lived in Japan for a handful of years, studied japanese for all 4 years of school and worked in japanese workplaces for over a decade and gotten a feel for the culture of that region, I'm not surprised. Economics is a significant factor but the rampant and overt chauvinism deeply negatively affects the psychology of both men and women
我的意思是在日本生活了幾年，在學校學了四年日語，并在日本工作場所工作了十多年，我對那個地區(qū)的文化有了一定的了解，我并不感到驚訝。經(jīng)濟是一個重要因素，但猖獗和公開的大男子主義深深影響了男性和女性的心理。
As numerous love hotels have been springing up in and around urban areas in S.Korea, the country's birth rate has simultaneously been declining, and the divorce rate has increased significantly. Studying this trend can provide insights. Please keep an eye on S.Korea’s changes in the future
隨著韓國城市地區(qū)及周邊涌現(xiàn)出許多情侶酒店，該國的生育率同時下降，離婚率顯著增加。研究這一趨勢可以提供見解。請密切關注韓國未來的變化。
"Solution" implies there is a problem. Any thinking and thoughtful person should know that a low birth rate is not a problem and certainly not "the" problem. The real problem is our economic models. The earth has enough human beings. Anyone choosing not to have children is doing the earth and all other life on it a huge favor.
“解決方案”意味著存在問題。任何有思想的人都應該知道，低生育率不是問題，當然也不是“那個”問題，真正的問題是我們的經(jīng)濟模式。地球上有足夠的人類，任何選擇不生孩子的人都是在為地球和所有其他生命做一件巨大的好事。
I am Russian-Korean. In my 20s, I dreamed of moving to South Korea. I used to live there, but I felt very uncomfortable and unwelcome, so I eventually gave up on that dream and moved back to Russia. Now, I’m in the USA and feel much more comfortable here than in either Russia or Korea. I know many Koreans from the former Soviet unx who also moved to the U.S., Canada, and Europe because they felt unwelcome in Korea.
South Korean people should be less arrogant; immigration is essential for changing demographics.
我是俄羅斯裔朝鮮族。在我20多歲時，我曾夢想搬到韓國。我曾在那里生活，但感到非常不舒服和不受歡迎，所以我最終放棄了這個夢想并搬回了俄羅斯?，F(xiàn)在，我在美國，感覺比在俄羅斯或韓國都舒服得多。我認識許多來自前蘇聯(lián)的朝鮮族，他們也搬到了美國、加拿大和歐洲，因為他們在韓國感到不受歡迎。
韓國人應該少一些傲慢，移民對改變人口結構至關重要。
Match making may succeed in getting people to marry, but still can fail in getting married people to give birth, because its all about cost of living. In other words people may marry for companionship rather than to have children.
相親可能會成功地讓人們結婚，但仍然可能無法讓已婚人士生孩子，因為這一切都與生活成本有關。換句話說，人們可能為了陪伴而不是為了生孩子而結婚。
let's not blame just the women here. Equal part is that men not willing to take on the responsibilities of taking care of their own children, or at least do 50%. lots of blame to go around, government not providing enough assistance with childcare or help providing laws or rules that incentivize having families. Retirements, taking care of elder parents, and etc. there are lots of pressure for young people.
我們不要只責怪女性。同樣重要的是男性不愿意承擔照顧自己孩子的責任，或者至少做50%。有很多責任可以歸咎于政府沒有提供足夠的托兒援助或幫助制定激勵家庭的法律或規(guī)則。退休、照顧年邁的父母等等，年輕人面臨很多壓力。
where i live, any idea of female/male roles are gone. everyone expects everything and is hardly ever satisfied. that alone makes living together a real challenge and unhappyness is quite common. when you got kids, things get really complicated and you receive so little support from the government. the costs for having kids is significant and another topic for constant conflicts. having children is a double edged sword. one way its great, the other way its just constant work and balancing everything: family, job, partners needs, money, time, holidays, etc. is extremely exhausting. i can understand everyone who does not want to commit to such drastic life changes. the environment for having kids is just bad and i live in a very rich country.
在我生活的地方，所有關于男女角色的觀念都消失了。每個人都期望一切，卻幾乎從不滿足。僅這一點就讓同居成為真正的挑戰(zhàn)，不快樂非常普遍。當你有了孩子，事情會變得非常復雜，而你從政府那里得到的支持卻很少。生孩子的成本很高，這也是一個不斷引發(fā)沖突的話題。生孩子是一把雙刃劍。一方面很好，另一方面卻是不斷的工作和平衡一切：家庭、工作、伴侶的需求、金錢、時間、假期等等，非常累人。我能理解所有不想承諾如此劇烈生活變化的人。生孩子的環(huán)境很糟糕，而我生活在一個非常富裕的國家。
The focus needs to be on adjusting to a smaller workforce instead of boosting the population. The happiness of the people should come before the comfort of the rich and the corporations. They just want to avoid a decrease in profits a smaller workforce would create.
重點需要放在適應更小的勞動力而不是增加人口上。人民的幸福應該優(yōu)先于富人和公司的舒適，因為他們只是想避免更小的勞動力帶來的利潤下降。
The winning formula: Have everyone in the family actively participate in raising the child. In-laws and husband helping to make meals, do laundry, take the child to school, clean the house. Everyone working as a team. As the saying goes, "It takes a village...". Then increase wages for both the mother and father's income and decrease working hours to 8 hours or less with a minimum of 2 days off. Result; the birth rate will sky rocket.
成功的公式是：讓家庭中的每個人都積極參與撫養(yǎng)孩子。岳父母和丈夫幫忙做飯、洗衣服、送孩子上學、打掃房子。每個人都像一個團隊一樣工作。正如俗話所說，“需要一個村莊……”。然后增加父母雙方的工資收入并將工作時間減少到8小時或更少，每周至少休息2天。結果：生育率將飆升。
To encourage child birth, governments need to target child CARE including flexible hours for parents, cheap and coordt child care places in EVERY companies, school busses,tax credits for parents etc
為了鼓勵生育，政府需要關注兒童保育，包括為父母提供靈活的工作時間、在每個公司提供廉價且便利的托兒服務、校車服務、為父母提供稅收優(yōu)惠等。
Some things are pretty universal - people dont want to have kids, they can't provide for, and they dont themselves want to be poor.
But companies and governments don't seriously want to fix things like high housing costs. They fundamentally aren't looking out for peoples economic interests in a just way. They are looking out for the economic interests of the owner class of people.
有些事情是普遍存在的——人們不想生孩子，因為他們無法撫養(yǎng)孩子，也不想自己變得貧窮。
但公司和政府并不真正想解決高房價等問題，他們從根本上沒有以公正的方式關注人們的經(jīng)濟利益，他們關注的是擁有者階級的經(jīng)濟利益。
I like how they are conviniantly avoid the root of the problem , why don't they talk about why the 4B movement appeared from example & why is government only decided now to help new parents instead of doing it all the time to encourage others!
我喜歡他們如何巧妙地回避問題的根源，為什么他們不討論為什么4B運動會出現(xiàn)，以及為什么政府現(xiàn)在才決定幫助新父母而不是一直這樣做以鼓勵其他人！
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://top-shui.cn 轉載請注明出處
There is always talk about how a low fertility rate will impact a growing older population. Is this the only criteria for mandating higher birth rates? Aren't there other physical and psychological health considerations? What about future food and clean water scarcities that seem inevitable? What about the psychological and social effects of overcrowding? Not everyone enjoys being surrounded by other people and noise all the time. Do we all have to live a hypercompetitive life to feel entitled to enjoy our time on earth?
I have to question if a declining birth rate is not a natural biological response to environmental pressures - that cause people to make logical decisions to not bring children into a world - that is already producing unhappiness.
I wish economists could step back and make a multidisciplinary assessment of changing birth rates, rather than continually insisting more population is always better, over simplistically, for the economic sake of older generations. The right equilibrium could be more complex and variable over time.
人們總是在談論低生育率將如何影響日益增長的老齡化人口，這是否是強制提高生育率的唯一標準？難道沒有其他身體和心理健康的考慮嗎？未來似乎不可避免的食物和清潔水短缺怎么辦？過度擁擠的心理和社會影響又如何？并不是每個人都喜歡總是被他人和噪音包圍。我們是否都必須過著高度競爭的生活才有資格享受在地球上的時光？
我不得不質疑生育率下降是否不是對環(huán)境壓力的自然生物反應——這種壓力使人們做出不把孩子帶到這個已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生不快樂的世界的邏輯決定。
我希望經(jīng)濟學家能夠退一步，對生育率的變化進行多學科評估而不是一味地堅持認為更多的人口總是更好，僅僅為了老一輩的經(jīng)濟利益而過于簡單化。正確的平衡可能更加復雜，并隨著時間的推移而變化。
It's a cultural phenomenon, not a logistics problem. This culture literally went from uneducated, rural economy to economic and technological powerhouse in the span of one lifetime. This was the result of an exclusive emphasis on education and career. Four generations of South Koreans have been raised to value career prestige and income above all else. Having a family is not a value that they think is worthy of sacrifice, especially for women.
這是一種文化現(xiàn)象，而不是邏輯問題。這種文化發(fā)生在短短一代人的時間內從未受教育的農(nóng)村經(jīng)濟轉變?yōu)榻?jīng)濟和技術強國，這是對教育和職業(yè)的獨家重視的結果。四代韓國人被培養(yǎng)成將職業(yè)聲望和收入置于一切之上，擁有家庭并不是他們認為值得犧牲的價值，尤其是對女性而言。
If I was contemplating parenthood, I would be worried about climate change, resource depletion, multiple crisis like the Chinese invasion, of Taiwan, North Korean's involvement in the war on Ukraine and other's conflicts leading to a world war and societal collapse. The future isn't that bright. We're going to go through a dark period in human history, before it gets better.
如果我在考慮為人父母，我會擔心氣候變化、資源枯竭、多重危機，比如中國入Q臺灣（地區(qū)）、朝鮮卷入烏克蘭戰(zhàn)爭以及其他沖突導致世界大戰(zhàn)和社會崩潰。未來并不那么光明，在情況好轉之前，我們將經(jīng)歷人類歷史上的一段黑暗時期。
I say we should embrace a low birth rate. Even a faster decline in birth rate. Nobody seems to remember or understand that in the past the world had fewer people and the economies of the world carried on just fine and without all this hand wringing about economic collapse.
I would welcome a debate on how a declining and much lower population could easily solve many of the large issues facing humanity right now.
我認為我們應該接受低生育率，甚至是更快的生育率下降。似乎沒有人記得或理解，過去世界上人口較少，世界經(jīng)濟依然運轉良好，沒有所有這些關于經(jīng)濟崩潰的焦慮。
我歡迎就人口下降和更低的人口如何輕松解決人類目前面臨的許多重大問題展開辯論。
The issue is that there are limited resources. More for you is less for me. It's a maxim the elites have known since the dawn of time, but now they've increased their share of the resources more than any time in modern history and there's no sign of it slowing down. Unfortunately it takes resources (including the resource of TIME) to support a family. Give those resources back to the 99% and they'll grow again.
問題在于資源有限。你得到的多，我得到的就少。這是精英們自古以來就知道的格言，但現(xiàn)在他們占有的資源比現(xiàn)代歷史上任何時候都多，而且沒有放緩的跡象。不幸的是支持一個家庭需要資源（包括時間資源），把這些資源還給99%的人，他們就會再次增長。