The Economist has a great feature on the Koreas this month. I especially like the articles about the culture, such as the “education arms race” that is happening (and this isn’t just restricted to Korea)

Throughout their children’s school years, they spend an extraordinary amount preparing them for the brutally competitive day-long university entrance exam, the suneung. All told, education accounted for nearly 12% of consumer spending last year.

and

If the private costs are no longer worthwhile, the social costs are even greater. Much of South Korea’s discretionary spending on private tuition is socially wasteful. The better marks it buys do not make the student more useful to the economy. If one student spends more to improve his ranking, he may land a better job, but only at the expense of someone else.

The weird thing is that the article claims that these educational pressures (or a family’s finances) have caused a drop in birth rate, but the circumstantial evidence we saw when we were in Korea was that there are a lot of babies!

South Korean parents will not even embark on having a child until they are sure they have the resources to groom it for success. As a result, South Korea suffers from a shortage of happy mediocrities, countercultural rebels, slackers, dropouts and eccentrics. These people, in effect, remain unborn.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: korea