South Korea: The only middle power of its kind • Hacker News Board

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#11

Post by alephnan » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

eatonphil wrote: post #9

Razengan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most modern how? Is everything just recently built or actually designed with modern principles in mind that will still feel relevant a decade down the road? I’m no researcher of any thing but the casual impression I’ve gotten from reading here and there over the years is that South Korea has plenty of problems, social and otherwise, and some of them pretty archaic and morbid (like idols collapsing on stage but nobody…

The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation). They also continually build out entirely new rapid lines like the Bundang express line which takes you from a suburb of Seoul to the center of Gangnam (a major district) in 15 minutes. Their buildings are also mostly new. It seems like every decade or two Koreans demolis…

> The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation).

One of the complaints I had from my SK friend is that other subway platforms don't have safety walls

> Finally in Japan there's a lot still done by cash and weird single-purpose ticket machines. It would be a hardware hackers dream because of the variety and number of ticketing machines everywhere.

Are they connected to the internet?

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#12

Post by odiroot » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

eatonphil wrote: post #2

My wife is South Korean so I'm biased. But I've been to Japan and South Korea and if you're looking for one of the most modern nations in the world, I strongly recommend you go to Korea. The only comparable country I've been to is the Netherlands or maybe Denmark. In contrast, the US and Japan seem to be somewhat falling apart with a peak in infrastructure and buildings a few decades ago. It's not that bad of course…

> My wife is South Korean so I'm biased. But I've been to Japan and South Korea and if you're looking for one of the most modern nations in the world, I strongly recommend you go to Korea. The only comparable country I've been to is the Netherlands or maybe Denmark.

Have you been to Singapore?

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#13

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

calmd wrote: post #7

SK is committing demographic suicide though, so whatever you think of its success, it has a pretty fatal disease. It has the lowest birthrate in the world. This is going to cause significant economic problems quite soon, or they will have to open up massive immigration which will completely change the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_birth_rate_in_South_Korea How does the developed world pull out of this ty…

> going to be one of the grand challenges of the 50 years

I’m sceptical of this claim. Demand per capita grows unabated. Working lives are lengthening. A smaller population living well is economically indistinguishable, in the aggregate, from a large one living poorly. Maybe post-industrial civilisations settle into a lower-population steady state than ones requiring lots of unrefined labor.

Yes, dependency ratios will mean re-jiggering the skewed benefits almost every country provides its old at the expense of the young. But that, too, isn’t a bad thing, particularly if it encourages labor force participation.

(There is another comment arguing demographic the dividend’s inverse is a myth. I don’t go that far. I just think it’s a manageable problem versus a catastrophe.)

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#14

Post by eatonphil » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

alephnan wrote: post #11

eatonphil wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation). They also continually build out entirely new rapid lines like the Bundang express line which takes you from a suburb of Seoul to the center of Gangnam (a major district) in 15 minutes. Their buildings are also mostly new. It seems like every decade or two Koreans demolis…

> The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation). One of the complaints I had from my SK friend is that other subway platforms don't have safety walls > Finally in Japan there's a lot still done by cash and weird single-purpose ticket machines. It would be a hardware hackers dream because of the variety and number of…

I think Tokyo has this too but I agree. It seems insane to go on every other subway in the world that doesn't have this.

For NYC I've read that it's complicated: https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/mta-says-subway-shove-preventi....

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#15

Post by jacob_rezi » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

On a tangent, I moved to Korea in 2016 when I was 23 to take advantage of the government's push for global startups.

I wrote a post about it here https://www.jacobjacquet.com/blog/building-a-global-startup-...

Anything related to Korea's startup ecosystem, feel free to ask

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#16

Post by alephnan » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

eatonphil wrote: post #14

alephnan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation). One of the complaints I had from my SK friend is that other subway platforms don't have safety walls > Finally in Japan there's a lot still done by cash and weird single-purpose ticket machines. It would be a hardware hackers dream because of the variety and number of…

I think Tokyo has this too but I agree. It seems insane to go on every other subway in the world that doesn't have this. For NYC I've read that it's complicated: https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/mta-says-subway-shove-preventi... .

> I think Tokyo has this too but I agree.

Yes, but it's not common. I live here. Maybe in certain wards that have more international residents, such as Minato.

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#17

Post by someperson » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

eatonphil wrote: post #2

My wife is South Korean so I'm biased. But I've been to Japan and South Korea and if you're looking for one of the most modern nations in the world, I strongly recommend you go to Korea. The only comparable country I've been to is the Netherlands or maybe Denmark. In contrast, the US and Japan seem to be somewhat falling apart with a peak in infrastructure and buildings a few decades ago. It's not that bad of course…

South Korea, Taiwan, and China all developed their infrastructure relatively recently, so it makes sense that their skyscrapers and subway systems are gleaming.

Fast forward 50 years (once the demographic collapse has fully hit Asia and Europe), and we'll see if their infrastructure continues to be so modern.

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#18

Post by eatonphil » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

alephnan wrote: post #10

Razengan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most modern how? Is everything just recently built or actually designed with modern principles in mind that will still feel relevant a decade down the road? I’m no researcher of any thing but the casual impression I’ve gotten from reading here and there over the years is that South Korea has plenty of problems, social and otherwise, and some of them pretty archaic and morbid (like idols collapsing on stage but nobody…

> South Korea has plenty of problems, social Social problems to what cultural viewpoint?

"Hell Joseon" is one I can think of. The idea is that it's too expensive and competitive to have kids and a successful career/life anymore. It seems (from my totally naive outsider view) that a lot of young Koreans feel very depressed about their options.

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#19

Post by eatonphil » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

alephnan wrote: post #11

eatonphil wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation). They also continually build out entirely new rapid lines like the Bundang express line which takes you from a suburb of Seoul to the center of Gangnam (a major district) in 15 minutes. Their buildings are also mostly new. It seems like every decade or two Koreans demolis…

> The trains running in the subways are much newer, cleaner, and wider than the ones in NYC or Tokyo or Paris or London (based on my own observation). One of the complaints I had from my SK friend is that other subway platforms don't have safety walls > Finally in Japan there's a lot still done by cash and weird single-purpose ticket machines. It would be a hardware hackers dream because of the variety and number of…

> Are they connected to the internet?

Sorry I didn't mean that in the sense of "cracking" but just that people who are into hardware would find it awesome that there's so much use of electronic hardware in Japan.

Re: South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

#20

Post by ekianjo » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

eatonphil wrote: post #2

My wife is South Korean so I'm biased. But I've been to Japan and South Korea and if you're looking for one of the most modern nations in the world, I strongly recommend you go to Korea. The only comparable country I've been to is the Netherlands or maybe Denmark. In contrast, the US and Japan seem to be somewhat falling apart with a peak in infrastructure and buildings a few decades ago. It's not that bad of course…

> Also, in my experience Korea was way more ready to handle English speakers than Japan was.

One of the key problems is that Japan has a huge domestic market and does not 'need' English to survive. Korea, on the other hand, is a lot more dependent on its external connections and a push for better English proficiency makes a lot of sense.