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No Country for South Korea’s Old

January 23, 2014

“For S. Korea’s old, a return to poverty as Confucian filial piety weakens” 

Washington Post article also says  the percentage of children who think

they should look after their parents has shrunk from 90 to 37 in just 15-yrs.

South Korea is known for big spending on private tutors and luxury goods, but half of elderly are poor, which is the highest rate in the industrialized world. (Newsis)

South Korea is known for big spending on private tutors and luxury goods, but half of elderly are poor, which is the highest rate in the industrialized world. (Newsis)

“There’s a dark side to South Korea’s 50-year rise to riches: The graying generation that is most responsible for that ascent is living in relative poverty.”

The disturbing piece, titled “For South Korea’s old, a return to poverty as Confucian filial piety weakens,” written by Chico Harlan, was published in The Washington Post recently. He says, in short, that what Koreans call “Hyodo” is something of the past.

Some of the points he made were downright brutal and shocking – “In a fast-paced nation famous for its high achievers and its big spending on private tutors and luxury goods, half of South Korea’s elderly are poor, the highest rate in the industrialized world,” he wrote.

The article also brought up the fact that over the past 15 years, the percentage of children who think they should look after their parents has shrunk from 90 percent to 37 percent, according to government polls. And the elderly suicide rate has more than tripled since 2000.

One retiree in Seoul, Park Jang-su was quoted as saying, “The family has crumbled. That’s why we are dying alone.”

Following is the link to the Washington Post article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/for-south-koreas-seniors-a-return-to-poverty-as-confucian-filial-piety-weakens/2014/01/20/19769cf2-7b85-11e3-97d3-b9925ce2c57b_story.html