What to do about 'the elderly in Korea"?: A Foreigner's Viewpoint by Todd Brendan Fahey
The problem of the dwindling birthrate in the Republic of Korea is, doubtless, a serious one. The assumptions and suggestions posed by the Chosun Ilbo in a May 9th editorial are equally problematic. True--a nation cannot survive if its population fails to reproduce; however, the cause of the low birthrate and the burden posed by an elderly population must be reexamined, should this nation escape the grip of Government playing the role of parent.
The primary error of your editorial is the omission of precisely why the "elderly population" will need to be "supported." I found this glaring.
Neither of my two grandfathers--both United States "Depression-era babies" (raised during the Great Depression of the 1930s)--went to college. Both worked blue-collar jobs to support direct and extended family. Both died near-millionaires, due to stringent savings, tireless hours at work, and the habit of taking stock options in their companies, as opposed to "raises" in salary. My father's father, who died at age 93 and did not retire from full-time (40-hour/week) labor until he was 75, put me through my Bachelor's degree and paid for a year of my Master's. His house--a modest two-bedroom, one-bath residence in a Latino section of Los Angeles (even though he was Irish)--was also paid for in cash; as was his vintage 1965 Chevrolet Impala, which he would repair as needed, so as to never need to buy a new one. It was a beautiful old car.
"Grandpa Fahey" was the son of an alcoholic father, and had to give up a full scholarship in electrical engineering to a good university in Pennsylvania, to work in steel mills for most of his 20s and early 30s. He was finally able to break free of both the Depression and the grind of the steel mill, and went to work as Head electrician for a new department store franchise which saw the value in his expertise and diligence. He was the only "blue-collar" member of the Board of Directors of the May Company--then one of America's leading department store chains.
"Grandpa Porter"--my mother's dad--worked by the sweat of his brow as an Arkansas dust-bowl (a drought that afflicted the American southern states for several years) survivor. He, too, picked oranges, slept in wooden barracks with fellow pickers, for pocket change and a meal. This uneducated man later went to work for the Standard Oil company, as a field laborer--a hard, sweaty job that wrinkled the back of his neck by the time he was 45. Never taking a sick day, a non-drinker, he pressed and made it to a (still-lowly) field foreman--and socked away a half-million dollars in Standard Oil (now Chevron Corp.) stock options, never making more than $18,000/yearly.
The Republic of Korea has been through incredible hardship, from 1910 to 1954--from the Japanese invasion and occupation period to the North/South split and civil war. I've lived here for five years, and know of and feel for your history.
The circumstances of my grandfathers' times weren't sunny, either. They exceeded their relatives' and friends' expectations, and succeeded beyond what most of my generation will accomplish financially and in terms of sheer respect. Sometimes a human must simply want something so badly, that he or she is willing to achieve whatever it is--and damn the naysayers.
The alternative is, to treat "the elderly" as an entire class of incapable semi-humans, and for Government to suck the tax dollars from the "younger generation" to pay for those of their advanced bloodline.
Perhaps "the elderly" need to be encouraged and offered jobs and situations that the "new generation"--sitting in air-conditioned PC cafes and playing "Starcraft" and "Force One"--are unwilling to take.
The primary error of your editorial is the omission of precisely why the "elderly population" will need to be "supported." I found this glaring.
Neither of my two grandfathers--both United States "Depression-era babies" (raised during the Great Depression of the 1930s)--went to college. Both worked blue-collar jobs to support direct and extended family. Both died near-millionaires, due to stringent savings, tireless hours at work, and the habit of taking stock options in their companies, as opposed to "raises" in salary. My father's father, who died at age 93 and did not retire from full-time (40-hour/week) labor until he was 75, put me through my Bachelor's degree and paid for a year of my Master's. His house--a modest two-bedroom, one-bath residence in a Latino section of Los Angeles (even though he was Irish)--was also paid for in cash; as was his vintage 1965 Chevrolet Impala, which he would repair as needed, so as to never need to buy a new one. It was a beautiful old car.
"Grandpa Fahey" was the son of an alcoholic father, and had to give up a full scholarship in electrical engineering to a good university in Pennsylvania, to work in steel mills for most of his 20s and early 30s. He was finally able to break free of both the Depression and the grind of the steel mill, and went to work as Head electrician for a new department store franchise which saw the value in his expertise and diligence. He was the only "blue-collar" member of the Board of Directors of the May Company--then one of America's leading department store chains.
"Grandpa Porter"--my mother's dad--worked by the sweat of his brow as an Arkansas dust-bowl (a drought that afflicted the American southern states for several years) survivor. He, too, picked oranges, slept in wooden barracks with fellow pickers, for pocket change and a meal. This uneducated man later went to work for the Standard Oil company, as a field laborer--a hard, sweaty job that wrinkled the back of his neck by the time he was 45. Never taking a sick day, a non-drinker, he pressed and made it to a (still-lowly) field foreman--and socked away a half-million dollars in Standard Oil (now Chevron Corp.) stock options, never making more than $18,000/yearly.
The Republic of Korea has been through incredible hardship, from 1910 to 1954--from the Japanese invasion and occupation period to the North/South split and civil war. I've lived here for five years, and know of and feel for your history.
The circumstances of my grandfathers' times weren't sunny, either. They exceeded their relatives' and friends' expectations, and succeeded beyond what most of my generation will accomplish financially and in terms of sheer respect. Sometimes a human must simply want something so badly, that he or she is willing to achieve whatever it is--and damn the naysayers.
The alternative is, to treat "the elderly" as an entire class of incapable semi-humans, and for Government to suck the tax dollars from the "younger generation" to pay for those of their advanced bloodline.
Perhaps "the elderly" need to be encouraged and offered jobs and situations that the "new generation"--sitting in air-conditioned PC cafes and playing "Starcraft" and "Force One"--are unwilling to take.
Original Investigative Journalism from the
Columnist Guild News Bureau
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