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South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

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301–310 of 444 posts

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

#301
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automation is progressing faster than new 'types' of jobs are created. In many sectors they'll be poised to be oversaturated with workers. Owners are happy to remove the human element wherever reasonably possible.

Automation isn't an issue (except for wealth gap). Automation opens up new jobs

The point not being that automation is an issue, but that a slowly shrinking workforce is not one either.

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

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea they were mostly rebuilding the physical world and not having to completely rebuild society from the ground. Small countries like the Nordics aren’t great examples because they’re so small and a massive part of their wealth came from selling oil to the wider world. The amount of oil revenue generated per person in those countries allowed them develop such a high standard of living along with really smart and egal…

That's inaccurate at best about the Nordics. Norway, yes, and Denmark to some degree. Neither Finland or Sweden have or had any significant oil and gas reserves, but built their economies on industry (and mining to some extent).

Agreed, but mining has historically been a big in Sweden (part of the reason why so many minerals were named by Swedish scientists). While we now have focus on other areas it has always been an important part of the economy.

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

#303
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many places and for certain purposes (the US and the EU for instance), geographical regions have one vote, regardless of their population size. It’s unclear that an age-based distribution instead of geographic distribution would be worse. But it would probably be unrealistic to achieve without basically completely upending existing political structures.

The EU isn't one country The US is one country and disparate voting power between states(mainly in the Senate, to a lesser extent with the electoral college) is a real problem. I see little reason to make it worse. Although it's useful to rhetoric out how little sense the current system makes

The point of having both proportional and state-based voting is to incentivize both small and large states to stay in the union. The optimization is for political unity over perfectly representative democracy. It makes perfect sense when you consider the ideals and goals of its implementation -- that being a compromise in order to convince both small states and large states to cede large parts of their sovereignty to what at the time were effectively foreign nations.

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

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limited supply of housing is an artificial local government constraint using tools like zoning and permitting to stop the construction of new housing keep prices high for incumbent owners. I agree it’s a huge problem but I would rather fight the constraint on supply than limit demand (partially immigrants) when they contribute so much else. We shouldn’t restrict economic growth and deny millions of people the chance…

Please. We have 40% unemployment in Greece among young people. Housing is bloody expensive to build. It is not some goverment conspiracy! Did you actually try to immigrate into US? It is one of the worst countries at accepting immigration. Any normal country gives citizenship after 5 years of residency. In US it is like 30 years. And from far away it looks like your melting pot is broken. Too many groups fighting eac…

"30 years" is factually incorrect. The requirement is to be a permanent resident for 5 years (I can find links if needed). Source: I'm currently awaiting my naturalization appointment, if all goes well the total time from setting my foot in the US to becoming a citizen will be few months short of 9 years (~2.5 years on work visa & 5 years on green card + ~1.5 years wait for naturalization appointment).

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

#305

> South Korea’s rise to a middle power status comes without much historical baggage The kingdom of Joseon was annexed entirely by Japan in 1905. Modern Korea (nevermind the North/South prefix) would not exist had the US not enter WWII. The 35-years under Japan is a major flashpoint in Japan-Korea relation, it's a joke that the thing that unites North and South is their common hatred of Japan. I'm surprised there's no…

The thing is ... complicated. America defeated Japan in WW2, leading to the liberation of Korea, but it was immediately followed by the US and the Soviet dividing the country in half. To make matters more complicated, the US backed a right-wing former independence fighter, who turned out to be a corrupt asshole who rolled in the same bed with national traitors (those who had worked for Japan under occupation). Becaus…

The thing is super complicated! The US under SecDef William Howard Taft backed the Japanese annexation of Korea (tacitly, as it didn't do anything in protest) in return for Japan not raising a row over the US acquiring The Phillipines, during the Spanish-American war. Everybody is retconning history. Anyhow, the point is, it's a reach to say Korea's history has little historical baggage. Why is it not a poor, angry, belligerent nation state whose chief export is "freedom fighters" with massive chip on shoulder, as opposed to the technical, democratic state it is right now.

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

#306
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…

Why is the issue low birthrates and not an economic system that relies on perpetual growth? Is there a more sustainable system?

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

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One core issue is housing. And the core issue with housing is that prices are an arms race where everyone always wants more. Most people would have two or three kids if they felt like they could afford it. The second core issue is modern dating. That one I don't know how to fix, but the essential issue there is the dynamics of dating not requiring commitment coupled with financial security for women mean long term pa…

> The second core issue is modern dating. That one I don't know how to fix, but the essential issue there is the dynamics of dating not requiring commitment coupled with financial security for women mean long term pair bonding happens at a lower rate and later in life. One way to fix it is the government deciding to highly encourage 'old-fashioned' social norms. For example, we could have single-sex spaces, which hel…

Honestly this sounds like a dystopian nightmare. It sounds like you're saying we all need to go back to everyone being a Good Christian who knows Their Place In Society and that will solve everything. Yikes! Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or do you actually want a Handmaid's Tale future?

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

#308
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…

One simple alternative to "massive immigration": Reunification with North Korea.

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

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do that in France, and birth rates are actually higher than most Western nations

Except the USA where we don't do anything. Don't even have paid maternal leave.

This is why the US relies heavily on immigration. Keeps profit margins higher.

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

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They buy goods and services in the local economy increasing demand and work tax paying jobs. That heavily depends on the immigrant group, and is, on average, not true in most of Europe where many immigrants heavily depend on welfare and it turns into intergenerational dependency. I'm sure it's different in countries that aren't offering full benefits to immigrants, and are much harder to reach via illegal migration…

I’ve read about this and a big reason is it’s simply so much easier to get a job in the US. You’re not dealing with unions and America just has way more low paying jobs. You can def argue this isn’t a good thing but working a low paying job is better than working no job.

More low paying jobs just leads to more misery for poor people, and more money for me. That is not how I want to live.
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