[Column] Starting all over on addressing the low birthrate

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[Column] Starting all over on addressing the low birthrate

Yeom Jae-ho

The author is an emeritus professor and former president of Korea University.

Mighty Sparta was conquered by Macedonia in 371 B.C. The city state could produce brave soldiers thanks to its draconian population policy bent on fostering them by sacrificing feeble newborns. Sparta even used marriage as a means to give birth to heathy baby boys. That led to the collapse of the powerful state. After the influx of wealth from conquered neighbors and the rapid increase in the number of slaves for labor, the city state fell into luxury and pleasure. Sparta eventually perished due to a critical lack of soldiers to defend against enemies after its population decreased to one eighth of the original in just a century. Asceticism and son preference helped reinforce its military power but fatally hurt the survival of the state in the end.

Could Korea avoid the dreadful path the ancient city state followed? While the world economy grew about six times over the past 50 years, the Korean economy grew more than 400 times. Korea could emerge as an advanced country by catching two rabbits — economic growth and democratization — at the same time. But a strong reluctance to get married and have babies as a result of that affluence and individualism sounds loud alarms for the future of the country. In 2022, 249,000 babies were born in Korea with its birthrate of 0.78 being the lowest among 38 OECD member countries. The total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born per woman over a lifetime — is also expected to drop to 0.88 after peaking at 5.95 in 1960.

Other Asian countries with strong Confucian backgrounds show similar patterns particularly when they achieved rapid economic development. In Taiwan, the TFR fell to 1.15 from 5.80 during the same period; in Hong Kong, it plunged to 0.77 from 5.07; and in Singapore, the number plummeted to 1.04 from 5.76. Such a scary trend can be attributed to the inability of new couples to return the devotion they received from their parents to their babies — and to increased women’s social participation.

Our government has spent a whopping 271 trillion won ($207 billion), including 46 trillion won last year, to lift the birthrate since 2006. It amounts to more than 180 million won per newborn. But despite such massive spending, Korea’s fertility rate continues to decline.

Whenever the government launches a national project, each ministry rushes to use the budget in its favor. Lawmakers also join a battle to secure budget for their own constituency.

The government’s annual budget of tens of trillions won to address low birthrate has been spent in weird ways — for instance, for the temple stay program or traditional etiquette education program (by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism); a program to strengthen export capability of highly promising companies (by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups); a program to restructure military manpower (by the Ministry of National Defense); and career support program (by the Ministry of Employment and Labor) — all unrelated to the low birthrate issue. Such pork-barrel budgets reportedly take up 60 percent of all the budget to elevate our birthrate.

Young couples blame high private education and childcare expenses for their unwillingness to bear a child. The money needed to send their kids to cram schools — 26 trillion won in 2022 alone — gives them too much burden. In 2021, the cost for private education accounted for 36 percent of all education expenses in Korea, more than double the OECD average of 16 percent.

Childcare cost is no exception. Dual-earner couples must rely on their parents to care for their kids after nursery and kindergarten due to a lack of public care systems. If they hire a residential helper for their kids, it costs more than 3 million won a month. Why would dual-income couples have a baby under such circumstances?

The government must draw up low birthrate policies totally different from the past. It must establish a new system to cut the private education cost by normalizing the public education system and provide childcare 24/7. The government must allow the remarkable development of edutech to effectively replace the humongous private education market. It must help free tutoring services like the Khan Academy to be active in Korea and encourage diverse volunteers to offer private tutoring on digital platforms. Only when childcare programs are available for young couples can the country end the vicious cycle.

At the same time, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance must ensure that the budget for low birthrate be used for the original purpose. The government must devise effective policies to raise our birthrate based on selection and focus, not on populism. Unless a comprehensive — and integrated — solution to tackle the challenge can be found, Korea may follow in the footstep of Sparta.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
 
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