Koreans consumed with living in the moment putting paid to family push

Lee Jihoon, Cynthia Kim, Joyce Lee

As South Korea scrambles to halt a decline in its birth rate, policymakers are having a hard time convincing many in their 20s and 30s that parenthood is a better investment than stylish clothes or fancy restaurants.

Asia's fourth-largest economy plans to launch a new government ministry dedicated to demographic challenges after years of incentives failed to ease the baby crisis.

But for Park Yeon, a 28-year-old fashion Instagrammer and aspiring singer, spending choices are guided mostly by her appetites for clothing and travel, leaving little budget for marriage and babies.

"I'm all about YOLO [you only live once]," said Park as she sells her Supreme T-shirts at a thrift fashion festival in Seoul's high-fashion enclave of Seongsu-dong.

"There isn't enough left to save each month after I do things to reward myself. Getting married might happen at some point but being happy right now - that's more important, right?"

South Korea continues to break its own record for having the world's lowest birth rate, which hit a fresh low last year.

Sociologists say the lifestyle priorities of those in their 20s and 30s - Generations Y and Z - mean they spend more and save less on average than the wider population or their peers in other countries, neither of which are conducive to nest building.

"They are status hunting. Their high spending habits show young people are working on their own emblems of success online rather than focusing on the impossible goals of settling down and have children," said Jung Jae Hoon, a sociology professor at Seoul Women's University.

Not even South Korea's aggressive interest rate hikes over the past three years have been able to rein in youthful spending.

The savings rate for those in their 30s declined to 28.5 percent in the first quarter from 29.4 percent five years ago, while that for all other age groups increased.

At the same time, people in their 20s and 30s make up the biggest spenders at department stores and top-tier hotels while their travel spending rose to 40.1 percent from 33.3 percent in the past three years.

The proportion of spending by those in their 20s at high-end stores has almost doubled to 12 percent in the three years to May, data from Hyundai Card shows, while that for all other age groups declined.

Last year alone, revenue at pricey buffet restaurants jumped 30.3 percent, versus a gain of 10.5 percent at fast-food restaurants and 9 percent for the entire dining industry.

Sales at Seoul Dragon City Hotel for its 90,000 won (HK$530) all-you-can-eat seasonal strawberry dessert jumped 150 percent from last winter, even after the hotel hiked the price by 12.5 percent.

Koreans' fancy tastes have made them the world's biggest per-capita spenders on luxury brands and a hot destination for the biggest luxury brands.

Chanel, Celine and Dior have all signed deals with teen-focused K-pop groups such as Blackpink and NewJeans as global brand ambassadors.

To be sure, financial hardship is by far the biggest reason South Koreans cited for not having children.

About 46 percent of 1,800 respondents in a May survey blamed either job uncertainty or education costs for this decision.

That's worsened by annual incomes only rising 2 percent for those in their 20s and 30s last year, slower than the 4.5 percent increase for all households.

But Jung added a youth focus on more immediate pleasures also explains why young people don't respond to the subsidy-based baby boosting policies.

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration in May announced a plan to create a new ministry to focus on demographic issues, after dozens of policy measures including subsidies to reverse vasectomies, cash support for families with newborns, free taxi rides and longer paid childcare leave failed to reverse the plunging birth rates.

In a survey of 17 advanced countries by the US Pew Research Center in 2021 asking what makes life meaningful, South Korea was the only country where material well-being was the top response. Elsewhere, family or health was the top answer.

For Park, having kids is an add-on she may consider if her singing career takes off.

"If things work out well with what I do, savings and getting married and all those will follow. For now, enjoying my life and working on my dream job are my priorities," she said.

REUTERS