So they've already embraced "you will own nothing, and you will be happy." Although the "happy" part is looking more and more unlikely.
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100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
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Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#12So they've already embraced "you will own nothing, and you will be happy." Although the "happy" part is looking more and more unlikely.
Happiness is a choice. Some of the most miserable people in the world are obscenely wealthy. Happiness = Reality - Expectations. You control your own expectations. Generally, the American Dream of a massive house + massive car + isolated lifestyle away from friends and family is a/ not scalable to worldwide scale, b/ not the universal mode to happiness
Ok, so how does your point tie back to the discussion? I don't think having a living quarters that doesn't flood during a storm is a very high expectation. Do you?
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#13I was not aware the social programs in Seoul were income trapped, like they are in the US. Isn't this a case against extreme urbanisation? The human density in a lot of cities are way too high. Another are the ridiculous housing prices. Is it a bubble? Will it pop? Will it decrease in my lifetime?
Where else do they go, though? The classic alternative to city life is subsistence farming. Massive US style suburbanization requires a ton of resources for cars and roads and armies to keep the oil flowing.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#14Another example of "south korea isn't good, its just that north korea is just worse".
Many commie nations in asia had nearly equally as bad, and sometime worse, "democratic" counterparts.
Until the korean war, north korea was actually richer.
South korea is absolutely a terrible place to live and has tons of corruption, it just looks good because its compared to its northern neighbor.
If north korea didn't exist I doubt south korea would receive more bad press like this.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Happiness is a choice. Some of the most miserable people in the world are obscenely wealthy. Happiness = Reality - Expectations. You control your own expectations. Generally, the American Dream of a massive house + massive car + isolated lifestyle away from friends and family is a/ not scalable to worldwide scale, b/ not the universal mode to happiness
Ok, so how does your point tie back to the discussion? I don't think having a living quarters that doesn't flood during a storm is a very high expectation. Do you?
That expectation reflects privileges that many if not most people in the world do not have.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#16So they've already embraced "you will own nothing, and you will be happy." Although the "happy" part is looking more and more unlikely.
Happiness is a choice. Some of the most miserable people in the world are obscenely wealthy. Happiness = Reality - Expectations. You control your own expectations. Generally, the American Dream of a massive house + massive car + isolated lifestyle away from friends and family is a/ not scalable to worldwide scale, b/ not the universal mode to happiness
More like ignoring reality is a choice. You can live in miserable conditions and trick your mind to be happy and refuse to be affected by circumstances and be happy. Thay works out fine if happiness is your goal. But that also means you ignore reality and operate based on lies and self-deception. Why work to improve your situation or fix problems if you are happy as you are? I actually think too many people are happy when they shouldn't. I prefer to be angry, sad frustrated, anything so long it matches reality.
What is the big deal about happiness anyways? I have been happy, I have been miserable. The taste of truth and justice is sweeter. Not seeing your loved ones suffer and your precious time on earth wasted away are better goals than being happy for the sake of feeling good.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#17"But not in our generation, the next one." The familiar song of the NIMBY knows no borders. What an amazing statement. Younger people must be immiserated because older person has bills to pay. At least demographically speaking the young man in the video won't really need to wait 40 years to get an apartment above ground. Population of SK is believed to have peaked in 2020 and is now rapidly plunging, with total ferti…
That lady is dirt poor clinging onto the meagre rent of a very insignificant asset. I guarantee her entire life, including as a "landlord", has been certainly tougher than mine, but probably yours and 99% of the people on this forum. The landlord is "in her 80s", so born between '33 and '42. Consider:
- She was born into Japanese occupation and lived through WW2. Probably was malnourished growing up.
- Shes old enough to remember the Korean War and, almost assuredly had the front line go through her location (at one point only the city Busan held out). War is not good for young teenaged girls.
- After the war, she might have been one of the thousands of low income women that were prostituted off to the American army by the Korean state desperate for foreign capital to rebuild.
- She lived most her life under a pretty brutal dictatorship.
Korean women of her generation have lived through some of the most insane hardships. The toil of her generation built one of the richest export economies in the world while inheriting literally one of the most backwards and poor country ruled by dictators.
I think shes owed a small rental income to buy meds.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#18I don't know anything about renting/buying/homeownership in South Korea but to me it seems like you could still have people living in these basements if you could ensure they don't flood above head-level with sump pumps or building a dike around the building or something? Not sure. Seems like it would be a good stopgap solution while still making sure tenants don't get their lives upended by flooding or laws that for…
Its impossible - imagine the basement is the hold of a ship with holes below the water line the size of doors. You'd need a jet to pump the required water.
The only technical "solution" would be to build a barrier higher than the flood waters around the apartments, but thats not going to happen.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#19"But not in our generation, the next one." The familiar song of the NIMBY knows no borders. What an amazing statement. Younger people must be immiserated because older person has bills to pay. At least demographically speaking the young man in the video won't really need to wait 40 years to get an apartment above ground. Population of SK is believed to have peaked in 2020 and is now rapidly plunging, with total ferti…
That lady is dirt poor clinging onto the meagre rent of a very insignificant asset. I guarantee her entire life, including as a "landlord", has been certainly tougher than mine, but probably yours and 99% of the people on this forum. The landlord is "in her 80s", so born between '33 and '42. Consider: - She was born into Japanese occupation and lived through WW2. Probably was malnourished growing up. - Shes old enoug…
There's more than enough economic activity in SK to pay for both health care and housing, but their wealth is highly concentrated among the richest. Instead of insisting that there must be an underclass of subterranean peasants supporting her in late life due to the happenstance of her petty real estate holdings, people who are just barely above peasants should be looking up, demanding accountability from people richer than themselves.
Re: 100,000s of people in South Korea live in tiny underground apartments [video]
#20So they've already embraced "you will own nothing, and you will be happy." Although the "happy" part is looking more and more unlikely.
The record low birth rate indicates young people are paying attention.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/26/asia/south-korea-worlds-lowes...