A lot of western communities are designed to stimulate consumerism. A lot of things to do in your free time revolve around buying stuff or drinking (alcohol). Even eating in your free time costs money, sometimes a lot of money even.

I live in a city that claims to have the most bars, cafés, restaurants etc. in the world. A lot of free time here revolves around drinking. I also sit down at a café often.

Recently a new park opened close to where I live. When it was flaming hot outside I went to spent my evenings there at some water pools and had diner there. A lot of people around me were just chilling, chatting and playing games. It reminded me of covid, when everything was closed (bars and shops). Everyone in the city was just outside, vibing in parks, playgrounds and similar places.

It made me wonder how a communist society would effect free time. A lot of lesser capitalistic, more collectivist societies already seem to focus on different ways to spend free time.

What do you guys think about this? Does anyone have some interesting theory to read regarding this topic?

  • @bleepingblorp
    12•2 years ago

    I lived in South Korea for a couple years, have family there, and visit often, so will supplement your input on South Korean drinking habits with my own observations.

    South Koreans definitely ingest a lot of alcohol (many boast it is the most in the world!), and in many cases bosses mandate workers drink together after work most nights. One might argue this would improve relationships between workers… except for the fact that management is nigh always present so workers still need to maintain the mask.

    And in those workplaces that don’t mandate those sorts of things, workers still very frequently drink after work together. Students and friends also usually resort to drinking almost instinctively there.

    While the nightlife, drinking, and eating in Korea is a lot of fun (or at least I loved it), it is a struggle to find alternative ways to spend your time if you wished to do so. There weren’t a lot of parks where I spent most of my time (Seoul), and you need to search a bit harder to find other ways to spend time.

    Outside of alcohol and restaurants, it wasn’t hard to find tea shops, open air markets, and the like, but those all still require the expenditure of money.

    To Korea’s credit though, there were a number of museums and cultural artifacts like old palaces that were interesting to visit all free of charge. And spiritually the Buddhist temples were very beautiful places to spend my time (I’m a Buddhist, so I gravitated there spiritually). With the exception of the temples though, most of those types of things closed after dark, which meant day shift workers would’ve been working during the opening hours.

    Also, workers very frequently work 6-7 days a week for 12 hours at a time, not including time spent in mandatory drinking time. And the hourly wage is absolutely insufficient for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Rents in Seoul are absolutely atrocious, even in slums. Public transportation while I lived there was affordable and reliable, and still is, but now taxi rates have skyrocketed and are approaching levels common in the US. Public transportation shuts down at night, usually from 11pm to 7am), so often during those hours taxis are the only way to get home or anywhere. Of course, pubs and restaurants stay open until about 6am, so many workers spend that time there instead of trying to get a taxi home.

    There is definitely a lot more I could say, but needless to say workers there definitely need more options! And my experience is mostly in Seoul, the most developed city in South Korea. As you get to less developed areas, the conditions only worsen, except rent rates. Seoul is definitely the most expensive for rent.

          • @afellowkid
            4•2 years ago

            According to Understanding Korea part nine, Article 30 of DPRK constitution:

            The working day shall be eight hours, and the length of the working day shall be reduced by the state in arduous trades and other special categories of work.

            Additionally, Understanding Korea says:

            According to the characteristics of the working sectors, the DPRK makes differences of daily working hours into eight, seven and six hours, respectively. […] They fully exercise the right to rest. The right to rest is exercised through such systems as daily rest after 8-hour work, rest on Sundays and holidays, annual paid leave, supplementary leave, maternity leave, and accommodation at health resorts and holiday homes at state expense.

            (I’m sure in practice there are differences/shortcomings in meeting the ideal expressed in the constitution, but that is the case in all countries; anyway, that’s what the constitution says according to Understanding Korea from 2017.)

            Defectors who want to return to DPRK:

            Mr Kwon lives in poverty and isolation in a small room in an outer suburb of Seoul, relying on charity to pay the rent. He is unemployed and claims when he did work as a labourer he was paid much less than fellow workers, or not at all.

            "Even though North Korea is poorer, I felt more free there. Neighbours and people help each other and depend on each other.

            “Life is simpler there and here they are just slaves to money.”

            Even defectors like Kim Hyung Doek — who have been in South Korea for 20 years and have forged a successful career, made money and raised a family — want to go back.

            Edit: Also there is this article, A Conversation with a North Korean Citizen

            One interesting thing which Hyun-Sik told me was that people in the DPRK are generally very happy in their lives, and that he would assume that people in the DPRK are, overall, happier than people in the West. I told him that in the West people often describe life as difficult due to large workloads and the pressure of competition: “Do people in the DPRK view life in a similar light?”

            “We have many rights regarding labour, like the Right to Work and Right to Relaxation. We work between 7-10 hours a day, varies by job” The working week would be “between Monday and Saturday with Sunday off”.

            “Do citizens of the DPRK feel the same way about their work that Westerners do?”

            “Frankly that is a question difficult to answer, it’s really a personal one. I know some people who throughly enjoy their career and come home happy and satisfied, some absolutely hate work and their lives. Mostly it is seen as positive,as we in the end are all helping each other”.