It baffles me that the SK government is evidently incapable of understanding that the issue is wage slavery. Everyone needs to work themselves to the bone, and every single time there’s an efficiency improvement, wages don’t go up and hours worked don’t decline, but “the economy” gets “stronger”. Which most workers don’t actually see any benefit from. So don’t be surprised that your citizens simply don’t have the energy or free time to even consider starting a family.
You can, of course, replace “SK” with many other countries, and the paragraph still works 100%.
A better strategy would be to pull back from late-stage capitalism and find some sort of equitable happy medium between that and socialism that doesn’t also destroy our ecosystem, while maintaining a (small-d) democratic form of government.
Leaders don't really care about the culture. The current economic and financial system need growth and most growth comes from increasing population. That's their real concern.
Part of the problem is developing nations are playing catchup and create a lot of pollution.
I wouldn’t mind spending some tax money to help them skip straight to green energy.
We have more than enough resources to feed everyone on earth. We have the land, we have the money to pay the farmers, we have the infrastructure to transport it anywhere in the world easily and quickly. The issue we’re having isn’t too many people, but a small group of people utilizing multiples of the energy they need, and dozens of multiples of the energy of the masses of the world.