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South Korea: The only middle power of its kind

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

#311

Post by throw37388 »

spothedog1 wrote: post #296
throw37388 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not familiar with housing in Greece. I should have clarified I’m talking about the US where housing is quite cheap to build but regulations make it illegal to build most types of housing. I was born in the US but a lot of my family are immigrants and I know how tough the system is, I’m arguing to make it much easier. I’m sure on the outside it does look broken and there are lots of issues to fix, but take a walk arou…

I would love to see how American cities deal with large scale immigration. SF got maybe 10k people on its streets and there is already talk about martial law and forcefully mopping people into rehabs. What would SF do with 1 million people on its streets? Athens and other cities managed...

Greece does not have a shit economy, we do relatively well. There are simply not enough jobs.

US is the same. Show me an entry level job, that pays enough to buy a house and raise a family...

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

#312

Post by kapp_in_life »

throwaway4good wrote: post #308
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…

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

Simple is doing a lot of legwork in this sentence I think.

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

#313

Post by [deleted] »

csomar wrote: post #124
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…

Not really. Immigration has become an issue lately because a human (or a bare-human) is worth much less. 1.000 years ago a bare illiterate human had some considerable value. He could work in the field or he could fight. More humans, more food and production. More humans, more manpower to fight your enemies. Now a bare semi-educated human is a liability. Which is why most countries are refusing their entrance. Times h…

[deleted]

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

#316

Post by tuatoru »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #270
iammisc wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dramatically ramp up childcare support. Strongly enforce anti-discrimination laws, particularly in the case of discrimination against mothers. Forbid employers from requiring more than 40h of work per week under certain (very high) compensation thresholds. Provide direct payments to parents that substantially offset the costs of additional children. Align housing policy with the need for larger dwellings for larger…

I think it mostly has to do with access to convenient birth control, like IUDs and birth control pills. Give poor women education and access to those, and even poorer countries will see similar declines in birth rate. I think humanity’s growth was dependent on women not having a say in the matter. All the situations I see where women have gained the ability to easily choose whether or not to have kids lead to lower b…

I remember seeing a study which followed the spread of TV across Brazil and the decline in birth rate. It was the soaps wot dun it.

Seeing new role models who had interesting lives, and especially learning that it was possible to withstand pressure from grandparents to have children seemed to be more important than mere availability of contraceptives or education.

IIRC there was a similar effect in Bangladesh, but it was harder to track since TV rolled out more quickly there.

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

#317

Post by slothtrop »

spothedog1 wrote: post #247
dragonwriter wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Except the US has a large labor shortage No, it has less labor supplied at current prices than purchasers would prefer. Market clearing quantity at current prices being less than buyers would prefer is...the normal case of a market economy. It's only a shortage if buyers paying more wouldn't increase market clearing quantity, because of some constraint besides “you haven't offered enough money to convince more peop…

The US def has a labor shortage if it wants to stay globally competitive in some sectors. Americans will either buy strawberries from immigrants on agricultural visas, they will buy strawberries overseas or they won’t buy strawberries. There is no scenario where they buy strawberries picked by people making $30/hr. The US tech sector can pay every software engineer 300k starting salary but at some point you’re comple…

Since you mentioned strawberries, Driscolls, the U.S. berry giant, a) actually yields most of its strawberries from Mexico, and b) is poised to increase automation even further. Have a look at the careers page here and take note of what they're seeking in the U.S. proper - https://www.driscolls.com/about/careers

> There is no scenario where they buy strawberries picked by people making $30/hr.

You're presenting a false dichotomy. Not only would people would pick strawberries in the U.S. season for less than that (assuming they would seek unskilled labor), consumers are accustomed to paying premium for "local" produce when in season.

> The US tech sector can pay every software engineer 300k starting salary but at some point you’re completely hobbling the ability for new businesses to start and grow.

There are always young engineers starting out desperate to get a job who would kill for the opportunity to work at a startup.

> the demand created by these immigrants for more software services outstrips the increase in supply of engineers.

FANG serves a global market, and the notion that there's some sort of lack of software services that consumers want is ludicrous. In the first place these are quickly filled in by app creators capitalizing on opportunity, in the 2nd, people generally don't know what they want when it comes to as-of-yet-invented software, they're told what they want by large companies.

> Americans get cheaper goods and services,

They already get that from imports.

> a fast growing dynamic economy

Benefiting the rich overwhelmingly.

Notwithstanding skill, because immigration isn't just about low-skilled workers (Canada doesn't prioritize it for instance), high supply of workers is lobbied for on the part of companies in order to suppress wages. That is the only reason.

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

#318

Post by carabiner »

contra-doubts wrote: post #264

This article is wildly off-base and totally misrepresents South Korea, both factually and in tone. There are many ways that South Korea is a great country but this article misses the mark. Source: I've been married to a South Korean for 10 years. > South Korea was able to make these achievements without a citywide nor a nationwide lockdown. A large part of the country is literally in Level 4 lockdowns now (no gatheri…

Agree with your overall sentiment even if I don't agree with every point. Article is just Korean boosterism from a Korean writer, without much reflection or critical thought.

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

#319

Post by usaar333 »

l33t2328 wrote: post #230
cturner wrote: post #184

"Indeed, South Korea is the only country that successfully made its transition from a former colony to an advanced economy." This is not right. Each of the following meet the same criteria, including the author's caveats - Taiwan (also Japan), Greece (Ottoman), Finland (Swedes), Ireland (British), numerous Central European nations (Soviet Union). Some others that are debatable - Cyprus, Malta, Israel, Singapore, Chil…

> One could say that Australia or Canada, along with the United States, used to be a colony. Nonetheless, what is distinct about South Korea is the fact that it was colonized by former imperial Japan by coercion They say this and then move on. The distinct thing is that it was Imperial Japan rather than Imperial England? I’m not saying those empires were similar, but it seems to me that they made the distinction just…

And Taiwan is ignored because the UN doesn't even consider it a country.

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

#320

Post by Aperocky »

mathverse wrote: post #160
keewee7 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is immigration but with high barrier to entry. I live in Denmark, a country portrayed as anti-immigrant by American and British media. However there is no opposition to educated professional immigrants from India, China, Iran and Eastern Europe. Brain drain of these countries could be a problem but countries like India and Iran are probably producing many more highly educated individuals than they can do…

You cant just easily immigrate to CJK countries.You will not become a part of the society.That's just impossible.Not even those of us that married koreans,speak the language and know the customs are that accepted in the society.We are tolerated and easily live and work there but you will never become korean or japanese or chinese. You will always be the "foreigner".

China is slightly more culturally inclusive having less homogeneity but the immigration laws are basically "Don't come (unless you're ethnically Chinese)", not that there are any real demand..
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