Aging Population and Reform Politics

I saw a lot of middle-aged people with high educational backgrounds imitating former President Park Chung-hee in my workplace where I worked for quite a long time in my youth. Middle-aged people were not copying the leader who passionately led the nation's growth, but imitating the terminal symptoms shown by the aging president, such as authoritarianism and problems with women. Over the years, I observed carefully while driving a bus, but the appearance of middle-aged people was not new. Perhaps it is thought to be the despair of an unbearable existence brought by physical and mental changes.

 

Economist Paul Krugman says in his book "THE RETURN OF BEPRESSION ECONOMICS" that no matter how much Japan implements economic stimulus through public programs, it has not stimulated the Japanese economy. He says the biggest problem is demographic reality. The aging phenomenon is very severe in Japan. Of course, Korea or Russia will be more serious than Japan.

 

In North Korea, South Korea, and even countries such as France and Ukraine, the leadership role of the new generation of politicians expressed a lot of expectations that the country's future will be quite good. On the one hand, however, the new generation of politics has the burden of breaking through the gateway to conservative past generations of people and old generations of politics supported by them.

 

It is inevitable that middle-aged people and older cannot have a reformative tendency. Humans have characteristics that are easily bound to past memories and habits, and the problems caused by biological aging are tasks that individuals and society must solve together. It will be necessary to understand life as a more continuous process and to have an utilitarian perspective of thinking about the future and future generations.

 

This problem is also the biggest problem in Korea these days. Problems related to Korea's rapid aging of the population, conservative regimes, the advancement of conservative inner groups such as prosecutors, and harmony with conservative foreign governments are much dimming the country's future prospects. The world without reform is a dark world. Such a tendency has path dependence and progresses more rapidly.

 

In fact, the issue of unification and cooperation between the two Koreas is an important issue for future generations on the Korean Peninsula and around the world. We cannot let future generations live atrophy under the threat of war. However, Russia and Ukraine are also showing the same dark future as the Korean Peninsula.

 

Korea needs to change its people and government into a reformed and public-interest attitude. In addition, since Korea has a good transportation infrastructure, it is necessary to create a space for growth of industry and population by focusing on balanced development of local areas. First of all, reform and fresh reform and growth energy should be created in the political world.