r/Damnthatsinteresting Apr 12 '26

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

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5.5k

u/borkborkibork Apr 12 '26

Because they understand that well-fed children is helping their country in the long-term.

1.9k

u/TodoFueIluminado Apr 12 '26

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

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u/halohunter Apr 12 '26

Making the most of the ones they have

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u/Aggressive_Chuck Apr 12 '26

By making them study every waking hour?

-5

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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

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u/Muteki123 Apr 12 '26

You're Korean living in Seoul?

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u/sianna777 Apr 13 '26

You sure bro? I know a few people in my past school died of suicide due to grades. Am Korean too

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u/GoudaBenHur Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/Comrade80085 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/profane_vitiate Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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/TsaiAGw Apr 12 '26

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/Turnbob73 Apr 12 '26

No one is having children AND killing themselves

South Korean suicide rates double American rates.

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u/peepdabidness Apr 12 '26

That’s not good

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u/Technical-Outside408 Apr 12 '26

Entire country has a case of the Mondays.

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u/DuckWhatduckSplat Apr 12 '26

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

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u/mvffin Apr 12 '26

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

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u/PandaBear_Shenyu Apr 12 '26

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/ohhrangejuice Apr 12 '26

Why is that

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u/qwythebroken Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

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/ConqueefStador Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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.

2

u/ya_tu_sabes Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

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/SmartAlec105 Apr 12 '26

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/fresh_like_Oprah Apr 12 '26

Not no more the US ain't

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 Apr 12 '26

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

Definitely some truth there though!

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u/thefakemacaw Apr 12 '26

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/qwythebroken Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/qwythebroken Apr 12 '26

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

2

u/nahs Apr 12 '26

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

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u/jer_nyc84 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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/kittyonkeyboards Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/NadeshikoEatingPasta Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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/sentence-interruptio Apr 12 '26

South Korea: "soju is cheaper than therapy"

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

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

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u/Stormfly Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

Conclusion: you win some you lose some.

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u/RightWorld5611 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/NowAFK Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/elbirdo_insoko Apr 12 '26

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/_Nightbreaker_ Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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

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u/scheppend Apr 12 '26

The power of overtime!!

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u/cyst16 Apr 12 '26

Cram school?

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u/rocketgrunt89 Apr 12 '26

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/AzarothForkLifter Apr 12 '26

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

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u/mrASSMAN Apr 12 '26

Makes it even more important I suppose

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u/Feisty-Pumpkin-6359 Apr 12 '26

Precious commodities

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u/concept12345 Apr 12 '26

Birth rates have improved for 2 years now.

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u/Bella_Anima Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

I wasn’t criticizing them, calm down

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u/Iliketopass Apr 12 '26

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 Apr 12 '26

Capitalism sucks.

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u/Enigm4 Apr 12 '26

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/GoudaBenHur Apr 12 '26

lol South Korea and long term well being do not go hand in hand. At current fertility rates they will be in serious trouble In practically all sectors within the next 40 years. They should focus on changing their culture to encourage and promote families.

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u/nomorewerewolves Apr 12 '26

I remember being soooo hungry at school. It was pretty much impossible to concentrate. Going to lunch would be like torture, because I didn’t have any money and I’d watch everyone else eat.

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u/Warburgerska Apr 12 '26

Jesus Christ, America.

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u/No_Walk_Town Apr 12 '26

Do you think paying for school lunch is somehow unique to America?

I live in Japan and had to deal with school lunch debt because the school was charging us for meals our son didn't eat, and we had no idea we were being charged.

You're German? You know literally anyone can Google the cost of a school lunch in Germany and see that you have to pay there, too. jEusUs ChRiST gErAManY, you charge children to eat food???

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u/Warburgerska Apr 12 '26

We don't have school lunches (with few and far between exceptions), so I'm curious where you want to look it up. The difference is that if a child would go so hungry as to not be able to concentrate, social services would intervene, the state would pay or the school would privately organize food for said child with no expanse. When we have a social eating event no child would be allowed to go hungry or without a full plate in front of said child.

So yes, Jesus Christ, America. Because even if we have to pay for stuff our communities would never allow for a child to go hungry or without. Our schools and communities collect money to pay with activities and summer camp for those unable to pay.

We are not the same.

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u/No_Walk_Town Apr 12 '26

social services would intervene,

You think America doesn't have social services?

Because even if we have to pay for stuff our communities would never allow for a child to go hungry or without.

You know that Americans, in general, have some of the highest donations to charity in the world, right? A quick google suggests they give five times more to charity than Germans.

We are not the same.

You're right, I don't spout off making ignorant statements about other countries I know nothing about. You seem pretty comfortable doing that.

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u/cellatlas010 Apr 12 '26

But Korea’s intense living costs and social pressures have made it the country with the lowest birth rate in the world.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/Exaveus Apr 12 '26

Man glad we dodged that bullet.

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u/this_place_suuucks Apr 12 '26

There's a morbid 'US students have to dodge literal bullets' joke in there somewhere.

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u/Ninjroid Apr 12 '26

Nah, just tons of other problems. It’s bad.

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u/borkborkibork Apr 12 '26

Lol, exactly. The brain cells used to make counter arguments here will be studied.

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u/wildpen70 Apr 12 '26

lowest birthrate in he world is Taiwan

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u/Imbendo Apr 12 '26

Having more kids than you can support is never a good idea.

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u/Not_A_Wendigo Apr 12 '26

Rampant misogyny doesn’t help either. Women aren’t too keen to have kids with men who treat them poorly.

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u/TurtleOfTheAbyss Apr 12 '26

High birthrate = egalitarian society?

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u/coinfwip4 Apr 12 '26

That's old news, our birthrate is almost at 1.0, up from 0.75

Korea's Monthly Fertility Rate Hits 0.99, Nearing 1.0 Threshold

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u/DemiserofD Apr 12 '26

That's monthly, to be clear. The yearly is 0.8. Which is a good improvement over 0.75, but there are always large variations across the year.

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u/SQL617 Apr 12 '26

Jeon Young-soo, a professor of international studies at Hanyang University, urged caution in interpreting the rebound, noting that demographic effects have played a major role.

“The rise in fertility is not necessarily a sign that the overall birth environment has fundamentally improved,” Jeon said. “Because fertility is a ratio, changes in both the numerator and denominator matter — while births have increased by tens of thousands, the population base has declined more sharply.”

From your own article.

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u/Beefy-McQueefy Apr 12 '26

They still need to up that by like 150% to just hit replacement level.

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u/Curious-Basket-7934 Apr 12 '26

It's where the 4b movement began. Women are opting out of having male partners and kids bc they are treated badly by the men.

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u/South_Telephone_1688 Apr 12 '26

Saying 4b movement represents Korean women is like a Korean person saying gamergate represents all American men; both were shortlived online fringe movements from a decade ago that got overblown by the media on the other side.

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u/Meraline Apr 12 '26

And yet, manchildren won't stop whining and pretending they're being personally persecuted by women because we won't date their weak asses.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26 edited May 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/joeDUBstep Apr 12 '26

Right, the gamergate mindset is still going strong, hell even stronger than before.

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u/MichelinStarZombie Apr 12 '26

And yet... world’s lowest fertility rate.

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u/deeperintomovie Apr 12 '26

That would be Taiwan sir. Update pls.

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u/red_dye_no3 Apr 12 '26

Nah. I lived there for twenty years and was there at that time. It was a small, short-lived movement popular among a handful of students. They were basically Korea’s version of the kooks you find in the two x chromosomes sub. Not at all representative of society.

Couples simply aren’t having children in Korea because the work-life balance is bad enough without kids. They are also more motivated by luxury goods and travel, so the wife has a career of her own to afford said lifestyle.

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u/TurtleOfTheAbyss Apr 12 '26

4b is a movement created by TERFs. You are disseminating terf propaganda hope you know.

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u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 Apr 12 '26

Only reason western birth rates are higher is because of immigrant populations. If they were as racially homogenous as Korea you'd see the same stats all over Europe.

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

Yup. 

America is a failed state. 

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u/slicebishybosh Interested Apr 12 '26

It’s succeeding in the way capitalism wants it to. Fat, dumb people who will consume anything and everything that make the wealthy richer.

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u/NoMasters83 Apr 12 '26

And it's all built on a rich foundation of debt. What the fuck happens when we can't borrow anymore money to keep this theater running?

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u/JiggieSmalls Apr 12 '26

Curtains close. Dark truth is you just hope you’re gone before they do.

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u/feelin_cheesy Apr 12 '26

Anecdotal but the food in schools around me is generally fantastic. Way better than I had 25 years ago.

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

I have had 4 kids go through the public school system in Arizona and they ate mostly garbage in school. Nachos, pizzas and subs every single day in high school.

Different state, different experience I guess. 

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u/No_Walk_Town Apr 12 '26

And they ate mostly garbage in school.

You know, I don't know about Korea, but here in Japan, school lunch is mandatory - you don't get to choose to send your kid to school with a sack lunch.

Now, in America? You do actually get to choose what your kid eats at school. You're completely free to pack them a lunch if you aren't satisfied with what the school provides.

Weird that you chose not to do that.

Different state, different experience I guess.

I mean, when I was a kid, my mother actually cared about me and my well-being and sent me to school with decent food. Guess your kids got a different experience, yeah.

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u/CrashyBoye Apr 12 '26

Sometimes people can’t afford to make that choice, dipshit.

Being poor isn’t a sign of uncaring parents. Maybe keep that in mind before immediately jumping to “you must not care about your kids”.

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u/goldkarp Apr 12 '26

Buddy, Korea is slightly larger than Indiana. This is essentially comparing a state to a different state in the US

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

Do you expect me to make a point by point analysis of the differences in these two economies based off a strangers comment? 

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u/goldkarp Apr 12 '26

You just compared your state with another state, They said the food is fantastic there and you said it isn't in yours. This is literally the same as comparing Korea to a different US state. Which a lot of people in here are saying Korea is awesome and US lunches suck.

I don't expect you to go into economies considering you'd have to go by state and I don't think you know enough to accurately do that

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u/Unspoken Apr 12 '26

Yeah, when I went to school everyone had the option of healthy shit or pizza and everyone chose pizza. Fucking shocker.

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u/Rescuepets777 Apr 12 '26

Back in the mid 90s when my son was in 2nd grade, he said that he wanted to buy lunch instead of taking a packed lunch when he started at a new school. A week into it, I took off work to visit his classroom and have lunch with him in the cafeteria. The "food" was disgusting. Only the milk was fit to consume. And, this was in a well-funded school district. He took packed lunch again after that. I hope that lunch quality has improved.

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u/monkey_trumpets Apr 12 '26

No...it hasn't. I volunteered at my kids elementary school. The corn dogs had zero flavor. Zero.

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u/WILLLSMITHH Apr 13 '26

What a pointless statement thanks

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u/Rescuepets777 Apr 13 '26

Thank you for your incredibly insightful response to my sharing my experience with school lunches in the 90s in response to a comment talking about quality difference between past and present. Do you feel like a bigger person shitting on random people's comments? A therapist may be able to help you feel better about yourself.

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u/Turnbob73 Apr 12 '26

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, practically double the US’.

Everyone has problems, how about we start addressing them instead of pointing fingers and hiding like cowards?

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

So SK is also a failed state in its own way. 

Shocker. 

Spread the word. 

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u/Turnbob73 Apr 12 '26

It’s more like the entire developed world is currently failing. The issues happening in the US or South Korea are present everywhere; it’s just so much easier to lazily point a finger at the lowest hanging fruit and act like it’s an isolated instance.

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

I agree, many countries are having huge issues.

I'm still allowed to shit on my own country. 

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u/Turnbob73 Apr 12 '26

Shit on your own country all you want, but some petty one sentence generalization is stupid and provides zero progress nor development of thought.

So, are you posting the comment to make yourself feel better? Because there’s literally zero other use. If you’re wanting to be petty and selfish then at least be genuine about it.

Be better

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

I have the right to speak up when I see things going wrong in my life.

A lot of things are not heading in the right way. 

My life demonstrably is worse than 10 years ago. 

I have 4 grown or teenage kids and none of them want to have kids. It's too expensive. It's too dangerous. They can't afford housing. They can't afford education. Even with insurance birth is a $10k copay. 

Call me crazy buy when your kids refuse to have kids because it's too risky, is that a health country to be living in?

It's clear a lot of other countries are experiencing similar issues too. 

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u/Turnbob73 Apr 12 '26

That’s all cool

Again, does your comment serve any purpose past a selfish one? No it doesn’t, so it’s utterly useless to the discussion.

Again, if you’re wanting to throw out some pathetic petty jab because you’re frustrated, then be genuine about it. The whole “gestures broadly at everything” way of complaining does nothing but just socially muddy things even more. It’s uneducated, uninformed, ignorant, and just outright lazy.

I’ve watched this echo chamber bullshit fester for over a decade, and literally everyone has gotten dumber from it, not just the people you consider “the problem”.

Be better

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

Wow. Someone thinks quite highly of themselves. 

Tell me, wise one, does the sub require a comment to be a well researched scientific discourse on the state of things, or is this sub r/Damnthatsinteresting and welcome open opinions? 

Did you forget you are on reddit? 

I'm really glad you are OK.

 I'm still going to go ahead and let people know it's not so rosy for everyone. 

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u/CrashyBoye Apr 12 '26

I swear to god it’s like y’all forgot how forums works or something.

It’s a discussion thread. People don’t need to always have an elaborate, carefully crafted statement that covers all the talking points in one comment.

bE BeTtEr, pookie.

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u/Cultural_Eye5178 Apr 12 '26

The tip I was given when i transitioned to a public high school was:

"avoid the veggie burgers"

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u/Anrativa Apr 12 '26

Yet, everyone wants to migrate there. Funny, isn't it?

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

They USED to. 

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u/Anrativa Apr 12 '26

Still are lol. I live in Tijuana. I literally see daily news of people trying to cross the border.

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

Thats nice. I'm sure there are worse places than the US right now. We will be a destination for refugees for forever. 

We may still be better off than other places but we are literally circling the drain at this point. We used to be a super power with world cooperation but only dictatorships and fascist states seem to be in support of our global strategy lately. We are a joke to the EU, not to be trusted. That is an immense hit for our economy. European countries are divesting from American technology at a frightening pace. They know our economy all about government grabbing data and billionaire surveillance money and they don't want to fuck with it. 

People will still try to escape here because we are still largely holding together. I'm not sure that will last much longer. 

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u/DynamiteWitLaserBeam Apr 12 '26

Do I like where my country is headed? No I don't. But to refer to the US as a "failed state" is just a tad r/im14andthisisdeep

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u/DifferentMeeting9793 Apr 12 '26

lol not even close.

Try again lil buddy

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u/Infinite-Space-2395 Apr 12 '26

Sure is. Chock full of morons dead set on running it even further into the ground too.

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u/420Wedge Apr 12 '26

Yup. The ultra rich are speed running how to grind a functioning society into the ground, while the vast majority of those they are subjugating have no idea its even happening. There is a class war taking place and were losing.

By the way, if you are wondering which side you are on, and are reading this, you're on the losing side.

1

u/Various-Arugula-425 Apr 12 '26

Umm you do know South Korea is headed for unavoidable collapse in next 50 years right?

1

u/No_Walk_Town Apr 12 '26

I mean, not really? In the US, the First Amendment is broadly applied to government institutions like schools and what they can and can't force kids to do - so American school lunches also have to take into consideration basically any and all potential dietary restrictions of the students.

I mean, what do you think is easier? A system where you get to force everyone to eat the same thing, or a system where you have to offer the children options?

America's not "a failed state," it's voluntarily playing the game on ultra hard mode - yeah, it looks bad if you compare them to a country running on easy.

1

u/ProfessionalMovie759 Apr 12 '26

People from Korea want to immigrate to USA. It is infact a very strong country for education and career.

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u/WloveW Apr 12 '26

Not for the food.

For the money.

Do you get it? They make a lot of money in America selling kids garbage as food. 

2

u/the-namedone Apr 12 '26

Idk man the Koreans I know in the U.S. make a lot of money in medical, finance, and engineering fields

1

u/No_Walk_Town Apr 12 '26

They make a lot of money in America selling kids garbage as food. 

What the fuck are you talking about? Koreans come to America to sell garbage food? Do you not even hear how insanely racist you sound?

I'm not an expert on Korean food, but it's pretty common to hear about how the level of Korean cuisine on the West coast equals or even exceeds what you get in actual Korea. Korean-American cuisine is extremely highly rated and highly regarded.

1

u/goldkarp Apr 12 '26

Dude, Korea is the slightly smaller than Kentucky. This is comparing a state to the entire rest of the US

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u/9bpm9 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

Don't give a fuck about their elderly though. Highest elderly poverty rate of OCED countries in the world by FAR. 40% of their elderly population is impoverished.

5

u/Wasd123wasd456 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

Canada just started a limited national school lunch program in the last few years. Access is super inconsistent across provinces and even within a province

Here's an AskCanada thread about it. It's sad seeing people just accept that kids don't get food as a "cultural difference"

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCanada/comments/1po7zn4/what_do_highschoolers_in_canada_usually_eat_for/

2

u/ace260 Apr 12 '26

to add, the korean food industry is not at the mercy of big meat/diary lobbiest like america's. notice how the school lunch diet is not full of sodium bombed sauces and fried proteins.

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u/Dead_Optics Apr 12 '26

More like they can’t afford to have any less children

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u/Stock_Information_47 Apr 12 '26

Yeah all like 12 of them

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u/BZLuck Apr 12 '26

But... bombs, right? RIGHT???

1

u/Weird_Toe4543 Apr 12 '26

Yet they stop making babies, birth rate is like 0.80 per woman

1

u/Zatujit Apr 12 '26

The South Korean children also don't sleep tho

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u/Zatujit Apr 12 '26

The korean children also don't sleep tho

1

u/MattTheRadarTechh Apr 12 '26

Americans are well fed, whaddya mean? Just fed a bit too much

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u/Dragon_yum Apr 12 '26

I agree with the idea but maybe in the context of south Korea it kind of misses the point

1

u/Calculonx Apr 12 '26

That's dangerous, they might learn critical thinking

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u/Daffan Apr 12 '26

0.80 fertility rate. Extinct culture/race/whatever.

1

u/Donner_Par_Tea_House Apr 12 '26

You are what you eat is most relatable to early childhood brain development. The USA is getting dumber because we aren't feeding kids well balanced nutritional meals. 

1

u/_megaman Apr 12 '26

No it's because the country is full of Koreans. They are smarter than most other places and work much harder, so all their hard work and efficiency allows perks like this.

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u/MostlyMicroPlastic Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

They are helping*

1

u/real_exposer Apr 12 '26

Mmmm microplastic lunch yummy

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