Yoon’s low birth rate policy is not welcomed by citizens

“The government seems to be telling parents to work more instead of raising their children.”

Author: Lee Hae-rin

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s recently announced set of countermeasures against the plummeting birth rate is being met with cynical and skeptical reactions from citizens. They stated that plans to extend maternity and paternity leave and after-school childcare programs are only piecemeal solutions that cannot fundamentally address the causes of the demographic crisis.

Critics have cited the country’s chronic problems with long working hours and the high cost of living as the main causes of the problem, calling on policymakers to adopt a clearer perspective and propose more meaningful and effective long-term remedies.

A woman named Jeon, an office worker living in the Dongjak district of Seoul and the mother of a 2-year-old boy, found raising children a challenge because it is physically impossible for a two-income couple to spend time with their children in Korea.

She and her husband only have an hour or two to spend with their son on weekdays after work, which makes it impossible to form an emotional bond with him.

“It’s unimaginable to have a second child in this country,” she said.

“It is even questionable whether the expansion of after-school care programs is a policy to address low birth rates, as the government appears to be encouraging parents to work more rather than raise children. The basic solution is to shorten working hours, but the government seems to prefer opening more childcare facilities with long working hours.”

Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate at 0.65, which means the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime is well below the replacement rate. The birth rate in Seoul dropped to 0.55. If this trend continues, the country’s population is expected to halve by 2100.

The government therefore declared a “national demographic emergency” on Wednesday, announcing countermeasures that also included relaxing income criteria for special loans for households with newborns.

President Yoon said at the time that the country would “form a national task force to overcome the problems of low birth rates,” referring to the ancient Spartan empire, which he believed had died out due to the demographic crisis.

However, many believe that the announcement was nothing new and merely a reiteration of existing policies.

Another Seoul office worker, 32-year-old Lee, said: “Few young women in their 20s and 30s want to get married and have children” for fear of high costs of living and interrupting their careers.

“No matter how hard we work, we will never earn enough to afford home ownership. “It’s completely unwise to spend all this money to get married and have a baby and then have my career ruined, but the government doesn’t seem to care about that,” she said.

A 35-year-old Seoul resident surnamed Jeong, who has been married for over two years, also said she doesn’t see herself having a child in Korea in this lifetime because it seems that giving birth will put her “at the beginning of an endless economic vicious circle.” ”

“It’s hard to afford to live in a three-person household in Seoul as a single-person family,” she said, explaining that she and her husband had decided to continue living without children in the capital, where there are better job opportunities, despite high housing costs.

Others questioned the sincerity of the Yoon government on the issue, which has insisted on abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

“The government plans to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and is neglecting the important role it plays in family and women’s affairs, an online commentator wrote. “It seems ridiculous that the government would try to deal with the demographic crisis without him.”