They were fully prepared to turn the working populace into slave labor and then the government was shocked to see that descision was unpopular.
One thing that catches my eye about this article is that the Guardian specifies “young people” as the cause for the pushback, Gen Z and Millennials, as if everyone else would be perfectly fine working until they fucking die. Just more “Zoomers bad” rhetoric.
South Korea has some of the highest rates of suicide, absolutely no government oversight that isn’t corrupt, is an insanely nepotistic country in regards to jobs, have practically zero workers benefits or protections, the pay is abysmal, and they already work some of the longest hours in the developed world.
The country would simply cease to exist with a mandatory standard 69 hour work week. The birthrate alone would almost instantly plummet to a little over zero.
they already work some of the longest hours in the developed world.
I think it’s THE longest or it already was few years ago when i checked. Far ahead of Japan, which is usually cited as the worst.
Btw. Do you know who was the first in EU? Greeks. Yes, the people accused by all reddit and ghoul media of being “lazy”.
i mean it’s no surprise that under capitalism “hard work” does not pay off, ever. The reward for working more than expected will always be even more work
South Korea has some of the highest rates of suicide
Say, do you happen to have statistics on hand for this? My colleague is a Koreaboo (and not for the normal one) and is apparently taking great offense to this notion.
https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/suicide-rates.htm
Korea Herald in 2022: “For Koreans under the age of 40, the most common cause of death is suicide”
On average, 37 people took their own lives per day in South Korea last year, which is the highest level among the member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
By age, teenagers, 20-somethings, and people in their 30s had the highest number of suicide deaths. Some 56.8 percent of deaths of those in their 20s were caused by suicide, followed by teenagers (43.7 percent) and 30-somethings (40.6 percent).
Hankyoreh in 2023: “Rising suicide rates, loneliness put Koreans’ life satisfaction among lowest in OECD”
Suicide rates among those in their 20s and 70s have increased rapidly […] New figures show that South Koreans have one of the lowest life satisfaction rates among the 38 countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Suicide rates have also gone up in the country while the proportion of people saying they have nowhere to turn for help in a crisis has also soared. In addition, the number of older Koreans living alone has also risen while the rate of reported child abuse has also significantly increased.
(Edit) Here’s another one from Hankyoreh: “Korea: An economic success where everyone is unhappy”
Despite this tremendous economic and political success, Koreans are becoming increasingly unhappy. Korea’s statistics regarding depression and suicide rates are the highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, it also has the lowest total fertility rate, and the labor market is overflowing with workers in unstable employment. With income and asset inequality becoming more and more serious over the past 30 years, inequality has become something far too familiar to Korean citizens.
And the Liberals complained about suicide net in China under an American company…
Thank you
god the audacity of capitalists. Did they really think people were just going to accept having to work 10 hours per day every day of the week?
To the ‘democratically elected’ every policy must be what the people want.
Why not? We’ve swallowed every other bullshit they tossed our way
Why 69 hours specifically? Did they choose it for the funni number?
Reddit was, for once, not entertained by it. Even the liberals were shocked.
Ten hours per day, with one shortened workday?
They’re not monsters, Shrike. This measure had to be introduced for the workers own benefit, otherwise they would have willingly worked the extra hour and that might tip them into an unhealthy situation.
“but south korea is democratic unlike the evil communist north korea”
In this specific case they did actually cave to the people though.
They will do it the Euro way - they will try again and again and again until people will not protest. And in the meantime they will attack the workers from another angle.
That’s right. They’ll add an hour a week until they get to 69.
Btw since i wrote that comment the Euro way just changed too, Macron said “fuck you” and forced that as a decreee by his totally democratic dictatorial power.
He’s getting the people ready for a big 60 year anniversary of May '68. This time the communists will get into power.
Macaron accelerationist
GenZ and Millennials are against this rule in Korea.
