for korea at least: - culture that prioritizes "status" heavily. this manifests as a consumerist/materialist society. everybody wanting designer clothes, liv

for korea at least: - culture that prioritizes "status" heavily. this manifests as a consumerist/materialist society. everybody wanting designer clothes, live in a nice apt complex, go to the best colleges, drive a nice car, kids go to the best schools and after school programs, etc. this is present elsewhere but it's amped up to another level here. - housing prices are crazy. huge increases over the last decade (and it was already running hot before that). failed gov't policy and covid pushed this to the extreme. at one point you needed something like 60% down (purpose was to reduce speculation) but all this did was empower the cash buyers to snatch up everything. salaries are not keeping pace at all. - women feeling more empowered in the work place, not having to follow the typical path of getting married and stay at home and take care of your kids. basically all the pressure of even making it here WITHOUT kids... OFC nobody is going to prioritize it. people have had enough.