Dog stroller sales outshine baby stroller sales in country with lowest birth rate in world

Man’s best friend could replace him if things continue as they are. That’s only natural, given that humans have created an environment that is extremely hostile to one another. As we enter the second half of 2024, housing and living costs remain unsustainable for many, who are forced to endure days of long hours and low wages. Hence the Maltese’s announcement.

Countries around the world are grappling with declining populations; the medical journal The Lancet predicts that 97% of them will eventually have fertility rates that are too low to sustain their size. Such concerns are particularly evident in South Korea, where the fertility rate fell to the world’s lowest, 0.72 in 2023. That’s well below the 2.1 needed to sustain a stable population.

And while there may be few children, there are plenty of dogs. Households with pets grew from 3.5 million to 6 million between 2012 and 2023, according to data from Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, first reported by Korea Times.

In 2023, sales of dog strollers will surpass those of baby strollers, Wall Street Journalal reports, citing data from Korean e-commerce platform Gmarket. This trend looks set to continue into 2024. There has been a turnaround since the site conducted its survey in 2021, with baby strollers accounting for 67% and puppy strollers for 33%, according to Korea Times.

Some politicians have taken umbrage at these alternative bundles of joy. “I’m afraid young people don’t love each other,” South Korean Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo said in 2023, according to WSJ“Instead, they love their dogs and carry them around with them. They don’t get married and don’t have kids.”

Noting the long-term economic impact of an aging and shrinking population, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who also has no children and owns a dog, has deemed the phenomenon a “demographic emergency.”

“The maternity strike is women’s revenge on a society that puts an unbearable burden on us and disrespects us,” said Jiny Kim, a 30-year-old office worker. New York Times. Indeed, there are larger social problems that politicians seem to be turning a blind eye to.

Low birth rates have become a conservative talking point, and not just in South Korea. The United States is also grappling with a steadily declining birth rate, which Elon Musk has taken up along with Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Vance has belittled Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats as “childless cat people.”

But politicians might as well shake their fists at the sky as long as they avoid the real source of the falling birth rate. Experts have diagnosed the problem as a side effect of the soaring cost of raising children, a bleak job market and the sexism ingrained in these environments that penalises motherhood. South Korean women cited financial and cultural barriers as reasons for not having children, telling the BBC that one of their main concerns is the professional consequences of taking time off work.

Meanwhile, pets simply cost less than children, especially in countries like the U.S. and South Korea, where the price of a private or higher education is prohibitive. The pet industry is booming because young adults can’t afford to start a family.

South Korea’s former gender equality minister, Chung Hyun-back, has cited the country’s “patriarchal culture” as one of the main obstacles to achieving her goal of increasing the fertility rate. She explained New York Times that she also does not have children so that she can focus on her career.

As economist Lyman Stone explained in a 2023 NPR interview, workplace culture certainly isn’t helping the situation.

“There’s a perception in South Korea that, especially for men, but increasingly for women, that your contribution to the office is what really makes you a person of status and standing in society, even more so than in America,” Stone said. The intense work culture is likely exacerbated for women in the workplace, who hold fewer management positions and have difficulty climbing the corporate ladder.

And it’s not just sexism that’s permeating the workplace and lowering fertility rates, it’s also the dating world. Studies around the world have shown that Gen Z men and women have begun to lean toward different spectrums, with Gen Z men becoming more conservative. This has led to some factions abandoning heterosexual dating altogether, taking the form of the more radical 4B movement in South Korea.

“It’s hard to find a man in Korea to date — one who will share the responsibilities and care for the children equally,” Yejin, a woman in her 30s, told the BBC. “And women who have children of their own are not looked upon kindly.”

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This story was originally published on Fortune.com