I want to give my position on a Korean societal issue, Hell Joseon. The issue is about the competition to escape poverty that young people in Korea face. You might have seen some Korean media about this, such as Squid Game, or Parasite. The high population density, along with the parents’ push for their children’s academics (and other factors) has created this environment.

When I was teaching at a small college in China, students kept saying their teacher ‘let’ them do homework. And, I remember correcting them: ‘make us’ collocates with ‘do homework, not ‘let us’ do homework. I don’t know where the students picked up this phrase. The students were only-childs, according to the direction of the government. Maybe it was a government phrasing. Or maybe it was a Daoist phrasing.

In China I became very interested in Daoism, The Way where people are not made to do unnecessary actions. My interest harkened back to my elementary school days. That school was based on the idea that children have a natural desire to learn as they grow older. We did not have grades, and only annual analytical tests. The teachers ‘let us’ learn. I base many of my positions on this upbringing.

The middle school teachers in Korea don’t actually give their students homework. They know that the hagwons, after school cram classes, will give them plenty. I understand. Organizing a society on the populations ability to pass tests sounds like a just system. But, it can lead to a competitive hell.

This, and the costs of sending their kids to hagwons – starting in kindergarten – and the work environment are some reasons that parents are having few children, and people are choosing not to get married.

My upbringing, schools letting me learn until I entered junior high, was probably a privileged one. Korea has a large aging population. How would South Korea, once a ‘developing’ nation, now a ‘prospering’ nation, function with this approach? I don’t know. But, my idea is to let things happen as is natural. There are robotics and AI to take up the burden. And, when planning for the future, the government can consider the desire of the new generation to be productive. Base decisions on that.