Tragic story , Baek In-je. But when you think about it, Korea unfortunately has all of the ingredients for a high suicide rate. Kids are bullied in school, netizens bully celebrities and women on the internet, the cost of living is high, but salaries are low. People are judged not by their actions, but by how many status trinkets they can buy on credit. Banks lend to people who can't possibly dream of climbing out of debt, and men are pushed into retirement sometimes before they even reach age 50.
Social benefits are a joke, and huge swathes of the population are not prepared for retirement at all because they've given large portions of their assets to their greedy, ungrateful kids, who have little to no interest in ensuring that their parents don't live like peasants once they are unable to work.
Students lives are basically determined in high school, when they take the university entrance exams. If they don't get into a "good" school, their prospects are fairly dim, regardless of how bright they are. So in a way, success largely hinges on one's ability to memorize. Parents will largely depend on their kids when retirement comes, and the population is shifting towards more old people and fewer young people. Young people will have to support themselves, their babies, and their aged parents, often times on a single salary, as Korean women are quick to complain about money, but not so quick to get off their asses and go get jobs once they've married or plopped out a baby.
So yeah, I can see how suicide rates will continue to climb, and for the most part, I predict it will be males, retirees (Korea already leads the world in elderly suicides) and school children who are bullied by classmates, or by their overbearing parents. What more could they possibly add into the mix, to make people even more suicidal?
Tragic story , Baek In-je. But when you think about it, Korea unfortunately has all of the ingredients for a high suicide rate. Kids are bullied in school, netizens bully celebrities and women on the internet, the cost of living is high, but salaries are low. People are judged not by their actions, but by how many status trinkets they can buy on credit. Banks lend to people who can't possibly dream of climbing out of debt, and men are pushed into retirement sometimes before they even reach age 50.
ReplyDeleteSocial benefits are a joke, and huge swathes of the population are not prepared for retirement at all because they've given large portions of their assets to their greedy, ungrateful kids, who have little to no interest in ensuring that their parents don't live like peasants once they are unable to work.
Students lives are basically determined in high school, when they take the university entrance exams. If they don't get into a "good" school, their prospects are fairly dim, regardless of how bright they are. So in a way, success largely hinges on one's ability to memorize. Parents will largely depend on their kids when retirement comes, and the population is shifting towards more old people and fewer young people. Young people will have to support themselves, their babies, and their aged parents, often times on a single salary, as Korean women are quick to complain about money, but not so quick to get off their asses and go get jobs once they've married or plopped out a baby.
So yeah, I can see how suicide rates will continue to climb, and for the most part, I predict it will be males, retirees (Korea already leads the world in elderly suicides) and school children who are bullied by classmates, or by their overbearing parents. What more could they possibly add into the mix, to make people even more suicidal?