I don't think it's bizarre. I'd attribute it to a common and timeless sentiment applied to the modern age. I have no reason to believe maternal/paternal love,

I don't think it's bizarre. I'd attribute it to a common and timeless sentiment applied to the modern age. I have no reason to believe maternal/paternal love, expressed as the desire that your kids live a better life than you, is a particularly modern idea. IMO that's why its common to see declining fertility rate in countries with large economies and countries with declining economies. It's heartbreaking to think your child will live a life that's worse than yours. In a poor country, even if you don't have much money, it's easy to think they could do better and live happier than you. In a rich country, even if you have all the means to give them a "good enough" life, it's not as easy to think this. This is definitely a cultural issue. It happens to be the case rich countries got rich by placing a lot of value in "success", wealth, high achievement and individuality, not in meeting base necessities and being content/grateful with what one has. Which is exactly what you allude to: > But the real reason is, it's expensive to train a child to get into a top-3 university. Raising a child to adulthood is possible even in abject poverty. I'm not South Korean, but what I've gathered from friends and media is that it's a hyper-capitalist society that's very, very invested into certain ideals of "success" (academic, beauty, economic, etc). I'm thus not surprised that, if associate that with happiness, the idea of rising a child to be happy is daunting.