Critics label as ‘absurd’ idea from government-backed thinktank as country seeks to address population decline
A government thinktank in South Korea has sparked anger after suggesting that girls start primary school a year earlier than boys because the measure could raise the country’s low birthrate.
A report by analysts at the Korea Institute of Public Finance said creating a one-year age gap between girls and boys at school would make them more attractive to each other by the time they reached marriageable age.
The claim is based on the idea that men are naturally attracted to younger women because men mature more slowly. Those women, in theory, would prefer to marry older men.
Maybe they should check why they dont want kids anymore and fix that. But than they would have to change things for the better for the young ppl and not burn them out, so probably not gonna happen soon.
The trend has been blamed on the high cost of raising and educating children, and the lack of affordable housing
This is funny to me.
Oh, it costs too much to educate kids? Just put them in schools at a younger age, rip off that bandaid sooner.
No, let’s not talk about the wound that bandaid is covering up in the first place, that’s completely unrelated.
“This summer, 100 Filipino domestic helpers and childminders will arrive in South Korea as part of a pilot programme designed to ease the pressure on working women who fear they will have to leave their jobs if they have children.”
TL;DR - It’s cheaper to pay Filipinos to raise children than it is to pay actual biological mothers.
I mean, if those women would prefer to keep working with more child raising support I think that’s a great option along with some sort of benefit system for those that do want to stay at home to raise kids. I’d imagine the latter isn’t on the table though
Maybe also fathers. Would help also if it not falls always back on the women to take care of the kids. There are 2 parents that could shoulder that
I just quoted the article yo, but you do make a valid point.
They better lower the retirement age for women as well, or they’re just stealing a year of women’s lives.
They’d* better lower
I don’t pronounce that in my dialect, so I intentionally don’t write it in informal situations. The loss of American dialects in favor of TV English is a tragedy, in my opinion, so I try to keep mine alive :)
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Between this and the Japanese government dating app, just how out of touch are Asian governments with what is going on? (I guess that can be said of any government). I guess I’m more curious why we’re seeing such a widening gap like this. Where is the information breakdown occurring, or is this straight up willful ignorance?
They simply refuse to raise wages and lower working hours because then they’d fall down the gdp chart until the potential population increase is of working age, if that even recovers the wealth, probably not
"A report by analysts at the Korea Institute of Public Finance said creating a one-year age gap between girls and boys at school would make them more attractive to each other by the time they reached marriageable age.
The claim is based on the idea that men are naturally attracted to younger women because men mature more slowly. Those women, in theory, would prefer to marry older men."
What kind of Thinktank is this? Instead of coming to the obvious conclusion that stuff is to expensive and trying to make it less expensive they turn it into a sexist theory that connects girls going to school earlier to higher birth rate.
