[Voices of the MZ Generation] South Korea: A Curious Land of Happiness

Happiness and Satisfaction Differ from Traditional Values
Cannot Impose Old Standards on the Young Generation

The younger generation is happy. Although there are various discourses about the despair of young people, strangely enough, the happiness level of the younger generation continues to rise.

According to the “Social Integration Survey” by the Korea Institute of Public Administration, from 2013 to 2020, the proportion of the 20s and 30s age group who answered “happy” or “satisfied” has been steadily increasing. Among happiness scores from 1 to 10, over 77% of people in their 20s and 76% in their 30s gave a score of 6 or higher. This is higher than the overall average of 70%, and the 20s and 30s reported the highest life satisfaction and happiness compared to all other age groups.

However, some parts of this survey seem to oddly contradict these results. For example, nearly half of those in their 20s and 30s answered “no” to the question of whether socioeconomic status can be improved through personal effort. Additionally, more than half of them viewed our society as “unfair” in terms of employment opportunities and other aspects. In other words, their sense of happiness and satisfaction differs from traditional value standards. In short, they are happy because they have given up.

The generation that historically marries less and has fewer children has now stopped pursuing all that and started focusing on their own happiness. In other words, many young people have judged that they do not have the “angle” to meet the existing “standards” of our society. They have concluded that no matter how much salary they save from now on, they cannot own a decent house, and that it is “impossible” to afford astronomical private education expenses for children, so they have neatly given up. Instead, they spend money on immediate overseas travel, luxury goods purchases, and hobbies for themselves, gaining happiness and satisfaction.

In fact, the proportion of overseas travel and luxury goods purchases among the 20s and 30s is quite high, but this is not because they are wealthy. Compared to the older generation who are entrenched in real estate, their assets are probably not even a handful.

However, by giving up on real estate that is “impossible to acquire” forever or on child-rearing with a predicted harsh environment, they have secured a different lifestyle and happiness. As a result of leading young people to such a situation, our society has become one of the few countries in the world with an unprecedented low birthrate.

Some might say to young people not to have too high ideals and that they can live modestly by getting a small villa in the provinces, having two children, and earning a humble living. Such a life may be the right answer for someone. However, in this era of polarization, where everyone longs for lofty ideals but the reality is that most except a few have an uncertain future plan, there is no reason to blame young people who deliberately choose not to live that life. No one can force unhappiness on others or future generations. Thus, young people are choosing the best way to harmonize ideals and reality in their own way.

Our country is aging faster than almost anywhere else in the world and has become the country with the lowest birthrate. The political sphere does not pay deep attention to this future issue, which is not immediately related to vote gathering. The “low birthrate shock” will fully hit in a few years or decades. Thus, our country is becoming a strange land of happiness. The older generation enjoys benefits such as asset inflation, while the younger generation focuses on self-reliance and present happiness, and South Korea is being completed as a land of happiness.

Jee-woo Jeong, Cultural Critic and Writer

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.