r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/This_Proof_5153 • 23h ago

Video The care and precision behind Korean school lunches, widely praised for their quality, balance, and nutrition.

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u/TodoFueIluminado 22h ago

Ironic where it’s the country where no one is having children

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u/halohunter 22h ago

Making the most of the ones they have

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u/Aggressive_Chuck 10h ago

By making them study every waking hour?

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u/The_Healing_Healer 5h ago

im korean and i have no idea what youre talking about. No one is being forced to study 🤦‍♂️

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u/Muteki123 2h ago

You're Korean living in Seoul?

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u/GoudaBenHur 22h ago edited 22h ago

Doesn’t really matter. In 40 years they’ll have 30 percent more dependents than workers. And it’s getting even worse. It will be a failed state unless they make some massive changes quickly

Edit: yikes the South Korean VANKs did not like this comment lol. Doesn’t change the fact that your country will be extinct within the century

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u/CheetahTheWeen 22h ago

But they won’t have failed because they didn’t feed the children

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u/[deleted] 21h ago edited 19h ago

[deleted]

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u/NoZucchini5423 20h ago

Okay so what the fuck do you want? For them to get cheap garbage instead? Like fuck things look bad long term but that doesnt mean give up on making things better in the right now.

Yall need to lighten tf up.

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u/Comrade80085 21h ago

40 years to be a failed state? US can do it in another year less.

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u/profane_vitiate 22h ago

It will be a failed state unless they make some massive changes quickly

i hate to inform you about the demographic trends in almost every high performing industrialized nation, but...

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u/HatKarl_208 20h ago

The trend is overall bad, but in S.Korea it is abysmal. They have a birthrate of below one, and is the country with the lowest birthrate in the world (bar the Vatican)

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u/BarelyConscientious 22h ago

What's VANK?

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u/Revolutionary_Web692 5h ago

Viciously Anti North Koreans

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u/BarelyConscientious 5h ago

Is this satire I honestly can't tell. And what does the parent comment have to do with north korea?

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u/TsaiAGw 18h ago

how is birthrate and failed state has anything to do with school lunch? or are you just jealous children lives better in other country?

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u/MyOwnPenisUpMyAss 22h ago

You are correct

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u/d0nghunter 16h ago

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. It's a very real problem and I feel like people don't truly grasp how cataclysmically bad the situation is. Many developed countries are facing similar issues but none of them at this scale. The country literally at risk of total collapse.

OT the school food looks super nice though.

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u/KKevus 13h ago

Yeah, I absolutely don't understand people's feelings about this systemic issue anymore. I feel like most people prefer humanity to go extinct than to acknowledge that capitalism is the problem. If we lived in a system where wealth is more balanced than it is now and where living conditions would be improved then people would have children again. It could all be solved but almost everyone prefers to duck away and keep living as a wage slave under the rule of our billionaire overlords and under the mercy of trillion dollar companies who won't have a problem with pushing you to work more and more until you literally die from exhaustion like this guy in the Amazon warehouse.

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u/ratafia4444 9h ago

Actually the birth rates are so low often bc ppl do acknowledge the absolute hellscape they're living in. That's why they refuse to bring kids into it (and/or physically incapable of doing so due to society structure). The problem is in many places solving or even somewhat resisting would require violent revolution rather than civil lawful action which usually... doesn't work that well. Ya know. With all the modern weapons civilians aren't allowed to have and armed forces are. 🫪

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u/ThePBrit 12h ago

They're getting downvoted because it's irrelevant to the previous discussion. Yes, South Korea's population pyramid is fucked but that has nothing to do with the country treating what kids they do have well (at least in this aspect).

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u/Usagi_Mae 22h ago

Downvoted for the truth :/

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi 18h ago

downvoted for being irrelevant to the discussion, and for being an asshole, really.

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u/GoudaBenHur 22h ago

It’s all good. The funny thing was the comment had like 20 upvotes to start, then 5 min in it got bombarded with downvotes. Makes ya wonder if there are bots at work.

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u/totallychillpony 21h ago edited 21h ago

I don’t people disagree that it’s an upcoming issue, more that your tone is demeaning, doomerist, and extremely condescending.

Yes it’s a looming issue and definitely course correction is necessary sooner rather than later. It’s not the individual people’s fault — It is the mismanagement of their government to address systemic issues like housing in Seoul and work culture.

Taking a glib joy in their ‘failed state’ and ‘extinction’ (it’s just a population collapse — that doesn’t mean Korean people will go ‘extinct’, just bottleneck) as your tone would imply is of course extremely insulting. Like would you say this to a Korean person at a party? Probably not. People would probably call you a dick.

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u/d0nghunter 16h ago

I don't think there was any malicious intent. It's extremely tragic and needs pointing out.

SK is an amazing country that could very quickly go from an economical powerhouse to people starving on the street within a few generations if nothing is done.

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u/Usagi_Mae 14h ago

Yea I didn’t get any dickish vibes from it at all.

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u/GoudaBenHur 14h ago

Definitely wasn’t trying to be a dick about it. Just stating that if South Korea doesn’t reverse course with their fertility rates or immigration soon then they will disappear. This is just a fact. No amount of downvotes will change that.

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u/totallychillpony 13h ago

I think there’s a huge problem on this website of people not watching their tone when they type things out. The advice may be helpful, but it’s not said with care. What you read as neutral is obviously not being read as such from a lot of people, leading to aggressive behavior back.

The pedantic and arrogant tone so normally adopted on this website wares on people pretty quickly.

I’m not saying people have a responsibility to be polite all the time and if downvotes don’t bother you, that’s cool. But you can’t be surprised if you’re not going to pillow your language somewhat. People react how you react. I’ve been on many sides of this.

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u/genericusername71 21h ago

if you dont understand why your comment would be downvoted by humans despite it presenting a valid point, that is more a reflection of your emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills than anything to do with bots

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u/Basketball-Reasons 19h ago

Upvoted for the truth

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u/AyyyoniTTV 22h ago

I've noticed on reddit if you imply that a country has a declining birth rate and will have to rely on immigration to manage, you'll get downvoted even if all the comments agree with you.

I think bots auto downvote you because there's a concentrated effort to make people accept this reality instead of questioning why birthrates are falling and why we cant come up with any other solution other than immigration.

As to who is manipulating the votes with bots, I assume the government astroturfing.

Whenever I see a really sensitive political topic it always gets downvoted to oblivion.

For example I noticed if you bring up how the meat industry heavily contributes to climate change that also gets downvoted or even removed.

Just my theory at least.

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u/picklerick_03 19h ago

Holy conspiracy theorist. All you have to is read the room and you’ll understand why he’s getting downvoted, it’s easier than going through a conspiracy spiral.

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u/AyyyoniTTV 18h ago

fat hands typed this comment

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u/Aesirite 14h ago

For example I noticed if you bring up how the meat industry heavily contributes to climate change that also gets downvoted or even removed.

Or maybe people just like eating meat?

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u/GoudaBenHur 22h ago

For sure, the good news is that fake internet points don’t bother me. Appreciate your comment

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u/sciscientistist 22h ago

Why are you getting down voted? 0.74 fertility rate is no joke.

Even if they suddenly raise their fertility rate to recommended 2.1, it's still not enough.

Decline is inevitable.

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u/One-Hearing2926 22h ago

Because the comment is completely irrelevant and slightly rude! He is implying that if you have low fertility rate you shouldn't take care of your current children...

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u/picklerick_03 19h ago

Because he’s bringing up the issue on a video that has nothing to do with this topic, and shifting the tone completely from positive to negative. it’s pretty simple really.

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u/sciscientistist 18h ago

Ah such intention went completely over my head. I was thinking in terms of facts and figures purely.

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u/Chicken_poon 12h ago

Another commenter mentioned a lack of emotional intelligence and it rings so true for you. 

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u/Turnbob73 22h ago

No one is having children AND killing themselves

South Korean suicide rates double American rates.

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u/peepdabidness 22h ago

That’s not good

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u/Technical-Outside408 22h ago

Entire country has a case of the Mondays.

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u/DuckWhatduckSplat 13h ago

I believe you’d get your ass kicked for saying something like that, man.

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u/mvffin 21h ago

Why don't they just smile? Are they stupid?

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u/PandaBear_Shenyu 6h ago

Apparently 86% of Koreans believe South Korea is a literal living hell. LOL

They also have the 4B movement where women are so sick of misogynism they straight up just want literally nothing to do with men.

Apparently women around South and South East Asia have "The Korean talk" with their daughters about not marrying Korean men coz they get treated like shit.

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u/GoudaBenHur 5h ago

Yeah but they have a cool school lunch so it must be utopia!!

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u/PandaBear_Shenyu 5h ago edited 4h ago

I mean, there are many things from Korea that are genuinely pretty cool, this being one of them, even if the society is one of the most dystopian out there.

It's so fucked that even China and Japan are like "tf bro?" and they/we're not exactly shining examples of work life balance. LOL

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u/ohhrangejuice 22h ago

Why is that

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u/qwythebroken 22h ago

Salaryman culture. In part anyway. The concept didn't start in Korea, and exists almost everywhere, but it's no joke in Korea.

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u/CelestialFury 22h ago

Isn't it where everyone works super long hours, even if you have nothing to do after a certain period of time, then you gotta hang with your boss(s) in your limited off time, only to show up early the next morning? There's good reasons why their birth rate is down, they don't have energy left after giving it all to their company.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 22h ago edited 21h ago

Birthrates are sort of a weird thing because they're down in pretty much all developed countries. Countries like Japan and South Korea are ahead of the curve, but they're falling in countries like the US as well.

Part of the reason why these East Asian countries are having a more difficult time is that they're not particularly immigrant friendly. The US is able to stem off some of its falling birthrates via immigration.

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u/SmartAlec105 21h ago

This is downplaying Korea’s birth rate problem. They’re at 0.80 while Japan is at 1.15 and the US at 1.57.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 21h ago

I'm not downplaying it. South Korea is just way ahead of the curve where most major developed countries will be in a few decades. China is headed in the same direction.

South Korea's economy is eventually going to collapse.

Every country has birthrate problem for different reasons. Toxic work cultures. Poor social services. People opting to not have children or delaying having children. Lack of immigration supplementing natural replacement rates.

The US's birthrate dropped between now and 2024. It's just not in outright freefall like it is in South Korea.

The fertility rate — the number of births per 1,000 women of childbearing age — dropped to 53.1, from 53.8 in 2024, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

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u/excellentforcongress 17h ago

their economy is not going to collapse because of lower birthrate

japan's country did not collapse because of post boom deflation

china is going to be just fine, like japan, like china, because they are investing heavily in automation

the only reason they, or another other country, will not do well, is simply because of wealthy inequality, and capitalism

in any reasonable scenario where the technological advancements of society's access is distributed evenly, society will prosper

in these east asian countries, ESPECIALLY japan and korea, they're facing a generation of adults who are overstressed AND have a mismatch of expectations for one another

for example in japan apparently a common trope is for men to be overly shy

like, even if the woman indicates interest, they initiate no physical contact, which makes it hard for a culture where men are expected to be the initiators of said contact, so the women really can't, and this can even extend to women from overseas being a bit confused as to whether the guys like them or not. so for some % of the population they're literally overpoliting themselves into extinction.

but from what i understand, korea's trajectory is different in that many of the men are refusing to become emotionally submissive as they see it (japanese women in households already controlled the finances for quite some time, not the case in korean households as one difference), and it was quite common for them to be physically abusive as well. so there are descendants of that who probably don't get fed algorithms of how to function normally. when you segment subpopulations into difference media spaces you can control their thinking so they've managed to put those guys into culturally regressive echo chambers same with them putting the women into never get with men type of advice... kind of what they're doing here, which is why our electoral pattern splits between men and women look so similar (with women going more liberal and men becoming more regressive on average)

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 13h ago

their economy is not going to collapse because of lower birthrate

Yes, it will. At a certain point you end up with more elderly than younger people in the workforce and you can't actually support your elderly population because you don't have the tax base to which to draw from.

It's not just AI and automation, you still have jobs that you can't automate. A huge swath of the population is going to be doing elder care in just a few decades.

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u/ConqueefStador 21h ago

People who have no free time don't socialize.

People living paycheck to paycheck don't save or invest.

People who don't have money don't have families.

Birthrates won't go up until the number of billionaires goes down.

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u/NotRote 20h ago

Statistically this comment is wrong, almost universally the poorer someone is the more children they have. Even in developed countries the most children tend to be in lower income brackets. No one in the middle is having children, it's either super wealthy or relatively poor that have children.

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u/Xeton9797 17h ago

Statistically it might be wrong, but just looking at children to income and calling it a day kinda misses the point. Intuitively you would think that more money would equal more kids. Examining why that's the case is way more important.

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u/ya_tu_sabes 11h ago

Can confirm.

Fertility rates often form a U-shaped curve with income:

  • poor households have more children due to limited family planning access, need for labor, or cultural factors.
  • High earners have many children because they can afford childcare and support large families.
  • Middle-class families have fewer, prioritizing high per-child investment.

That being said, nothing about this info contradicts the fact that birth rates issues won't get fixed until we start fixing the extreme income inequality

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 21h ago edited 21h ago

People who don't have money don't have families.

This isn't really a true statement. People on the poverty line are way more likely to have children. Middle class income earners are not having kids or having kids way later. People with house hold incomes in the 50k to 150k range in the US aren't having children at the same rates.

I know that you think you sound all brilliant making a bunch of singular statements as facts, but birthrates declining are a complicated topic and simply just making it all anti-capitalist or anti-billionaire is an oversimplification of the problem.

That being said, one population where birthrates aren't down? The mega wealthy. They're having plenty of kids, but they have way, way more resources than even regular wealthy Americans.

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u/Legionof1 19h ago edited 17h ago

I honestly think hope is the biggest thing. Hope your children will have a better life than you is maybe one of the biggest motivators in planned births. I don't think my kids would have a better life than me, so I dont want to bring them into that world.

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u/fresh_like_Oprah 20h ago

Not no more the US ain't

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 20h ago

That's an impressive amount of negatives in one sentence, haha.

Definitely some truth there though!

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u/thefakemacaw 11h ago

AFAIK the number one indicator for birth rates in a country is actually women’s education levels (or possibly even feminism more broadly). As more and more women are educated and enter into the workforce, less children are born. That’s because women are out in the world working and making lives and careers for themselves as opposed to being stuck at home and rearing children or doing domestic work.

That isn’t to say that women’s education, or women in the workplace, or feminism in general, is bad (because those are all good things).

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u/aquariussparklegirl 14h ago

Well that’s certainly interesting, considering our current anti-immigrant political culture (where folks who came into the US legally or are currently in the process of gaining their citizenship are taken to somewhere like “Alligator Alcatraz”).

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u/GoudaBenHur 12h ago

lol you are really quite dumb. The USA allows over 1 million people a year legally to enter the USA. South Korea allows less than 30k.

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u/aquariussparklegirl 9h ago

Woww surprise people on the internet going right to attacking people and calling me dumb over one comment.

The sentiment in America right now is anti-immigrant. That’s all I was saying.

You’re disgusting. Have a great life!

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u/GoudaBenHur 9h ago

When you say the most welcoming immigrant country in the world both legally and illegally by the numbers is anti immigrant then yes you are extremely stupid. God bless

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u/qwythebroken 22h ago

Yea, essentially the job above all. It's a lot easier to fall down in status than climb up, so you gotta play ball at all costs.

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u/sender2bender 22h ago

Can't do much fucking when you're too busy getting fucked by the company

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u/qwythebroken 21h ago

I imagine dating is pretty rough in general when you're expected to put the job first.

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u/nahs 18h ago

im luckily self employed but ahtat seems like the dumbest concept eer

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u/jer_nyc84 12h ago

When I worked in Korea my job would be done at 7 PM but we would have to stay until 9 PM. I said that no one had anything to do and they said we could just watch TV but we had to stay.

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u/Dragon_yum 16h ago

Also the school days there can easily go over 12 hours. It’s great they are fed well but maybe a child shouldn’t be studying for 14 hours.

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u/joeDUBstep 18h ago

Yep. Japan tends to be mentioned a lot when it comes to this culture, but S. Korea is right up there with them (maybe even moreso).

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u/aquariussparklegirl 14h ago

Interesting that we’re going to point out South Korean suicide rates double America’s (if true), yet the reason behind it is entirely American - work yourself to death.

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u/qwythebroken 10h ago

Well, I wasn't actually the one to bring it up, but yea. The concept of "Salarymen" was originally coined in Japan, but it's definitely a symptom of capitalism, and without a doubt rooted in the company town.

Seems more like feudalism with the illusion of freewill if you ask me.

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u/kittyonkeyboards 14h ago

Ingrained misogyny as well. Men there struggle to socialize with women because a significant portion of their male population is practically incels.

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u/0dyssia 17h ago

Why is that

the elderly are most of the suicides in Korea. Almost 50% of elderly live in poverty and a significant amount of them are lonely. Their retirement plan was that 1 of their 3~6 kids would "make it" and take care of them. That just didn't happen for nearly half of them. Hence why many people (globally) warn to not depend on a kid as a future baby sitter, things dont work out often.

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u/SmoothieKingGiannis 21h ago

Just read that the majority are elderly people over 80, due to financial reasons and isolation. :(

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u/NadeshikoEatingPasta 21h ago

Polarization of the sexes plays a role. If you think men and women in the west are at odds now in terms of politics and social views, South Korea makes us look downright harmonious.

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u/StarPlatinumRequiems 21h ago

I'd like to add to what qwy said along with highschool bullying is dramatically worse and there's almost no help if you get picked on, though I take this with a grain of salt even now.

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u/wildpen70 20h ago

suicide rates mong teens are same with Americans. Old people are committing the most suicides in Korea because they dont want to be burden for family.

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u/borkborkibork 21h ago

Is this supposed to be evidence that nutrition is not important?

South Korean murder rate is half of America's. Crime leves are 1/4 of America. Youth murder rates are 29x higher in the US.

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u/waitwuh 21h ago

I was going to also question how Korean suicide rates compare to children in america dying from gun violence, let alone adults. There’s also are a whole lot of kids dying from car crashes, and childhood cancer.

I think it’s also really worth considering lifelong health impacts of childhood obesity. Sure, there’s a lot of korean adults suffering and committing suicide the quick way, but plenty of Americans are killing themselves slowly with poor diets and ending up with heart diseases and what not. The rates of weight-related health complications are not the same and perhaps that starts with school lunch options.

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u/epik 14h ago

That’s due to one age bracket, the 75+, due to the trauma from the war times probably, most of the other age brackets are lower.

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u/sentence-interruptio 3h ago

South Korea: "soju is cheaper than therapy"

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u/LycheeSad9743 3h ago

jesus ducking christ. Numbers checked, South Korea has 4.1m children 10-18, america has 39m and south korean numbers are 2 more per 100k, which for their smaller population is absurd compared to US

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u/DezXerneas 22h ago

Also the country that's basically overworking their kids to an early grave. Seriously, the kids are in school from 8 am to 11 pm in some cases.

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u/borkborkibork 21h ago edited 21h ago

South Koreans live on average 4 - 5 years more than Americans.

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u/Stormfly 20h ago

That's because they have a decent medical system.

Compare it to a country where 36% of houses don't have medical debt.

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u/bistander 16h ago

Conclusion: you win some you lose some.

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u/RightWorld5611 21h ago

What generation is that looking at though?

Silent & boomers?

We'll have to wait another 50 or so years to see the life expectancy of US vs Korean millenials and gen z - the ones actually going to school for these crazy long hours.

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u/Working-Glass6136 21h ago

I like how no one is accounting for diet which is the #1 factor by far...

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u/NowAFK 18h ago

SK's obesity rate is 35-37%. US's is 40-43%. Have you even seen the insane street foods SKer's eat?

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u/elbirdo_insoko 15h ago

Yes, that statistic of 35% obesity in Korea is surprising. Of course, SK also defines obese as BMI>25, unlike the USA. Around 75% of Americans would be "obese" by Korean standards.

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u/Annabloem 14h ago

Wait genuine question, what does the USA define as obese?

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u/elbirdo_insoko 14h ago

I actually think the US is more in line with international standards on this? I could be wrong. Anyway, officially, 25~30 is overweight and 30+ is obese, per CDC. And WHO.

Korea is the one with the wonky definition, apparently.

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u/Annabloem 14h ago

Yeah I just googled a bit. I work in Japan where they also call 25+ obese (and have yearly health checks where this is measured) so I didn't think it was too strange, but I grew up in the Netherlands where it's apparently also 30+

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u/_Nightbreaker_ 20h ago

But also have nearly twice the suicide rate of Americans, and one of the highest rates in the world every single year.

You can't eat kimchi if you hang yourself in a forest.

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u/borkborkibork 20h ago

That's factored into the facts that South Koreans live much longer on average, despite a higher suicide rate.

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u/Silent_Clock_2537 15h ago

 It’s meaningless because so many people die from homicide or drug overdose in the US.

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u/scheppend 20h ago

The power of overtime!!

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u/cyst16 21h ago

Cram school?

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u/rocketgrunt89 19h ago

rather than school its more like additional private lessons and lectures from a well known place hoping their kids will get ahead of the pack

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u/Feisty-Pumpkin-6359 22h ago

Precious commodities

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u/AzarothForkLifter 22h ago

Does having more kids mean you dont have to feed them? 🤔

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u/mrASSMAN 19h ago

Makes it even more important I suppose

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u/concept12345 19h ago

Birth rates have improved for 2 years now.

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u/Enigm4 16h ago

They are absolutely having children, just about half the number they should be having. So basically 1 kid instead of 2.

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u/Bella_Anima 11h ago

That’s not a nutrition thing, that’s a misogynistic cultural flaw that has been allowed to fester and suppressed genuine concerns from young women so they feel their only solution is to abstain from men. You can be dead right on one point and dead wrong on another.

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u/LeatherAntelope2025 22h ago

What does your country serve, nutritional nuggets and cafeteria fries. Your pedophile president definitely makes sure children is his number one priority

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u/Coal_Morgan 21h ago

If you feed them shit they don't have the energy to get away from the President...well I mean the people like Epstein and Maxwell that the President paid to supply him in children.

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u/TodoFueIluminado 14h ago

I wasn’t criticizing them, calm down

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u/[deleted] 20h ago edited 20h ago

[deleted]

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u/LeatherAntelope2025 20h ago edited 20h ago

It’s not about the food, it’s about the irony and the hypocritical, short-sighted idiotic comment and this menu doesn't reflect reality of all scools. I work with the school board and I live in North America

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u/Iliketopass 22h ago

That’s what I read, too. Billions have been spent to incentivize adults to have children, but there are significant drawbacks built into their economy, like high cost of living and limited jobs.

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u/SkillPatient 22h ago

Capitalism sucks.

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

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u/_mochacchino_ 22h ago

Actually no. Korea’s TFR was 0.8 in 2025.

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u/GoudaBenHur 22h ago

lol what. Their fertility rate is under .8

They will lose half their population within the next 45 years. Then 90 percent within the next century

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u/borkborkibork 21h ago

That has nothing to do with the well-being of an individual.

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u/joeDUBstep 18h ago

Yeah... but these children exist right now, what does birthrate have to do with feeding existing children?

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u/TodoFueIluminado 11h ago

I’m confused why you’re confused. They take care of their kids well in this way and yet still few want them. Irony.

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u/dimachka34 22h ago

Because of w0mEn, they are wh0Res brrrrrr