The pressure to make babies | The Population Bust

[00:00:24][music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I am a mother of three and I love being a mom, but I also love being more than that.

[00:02:56]I am a influencer or like a content creator. I was already a mom of two and I was kind of spiraling very badly.

[00:03:05][music] I was constantly stuck with two children with no help.

[00:03:11]My husband told me one day, you really need to do something. You have good ideas, >> [music] >> you are not afraid in front of a camera.

[00:03:18]So why don't you just start doing Tik Toks really?

[00:03:23]Then it occurred to me, yeah, I could actually talk about my experiences.

[00:03:30]>> [music] >> I'm going to talk about motherhood. I want to talk about marriage.

[00:03:36]And now it's been 3 years and I've built a platform with 299,000 followers as of today.

[00:03:48]Here in Hungary you get like great benefits.

[00:03:51]So the way we benefit from the family policies in Hungary, first of all is the tax reduction. So, we get quite a nice amount back. We don't pay for the lunch in kindergarten, and we also don't pay for the daycare.

[00:04:09]The baby expecting loan, it's a 10 million Hungarian forints, which is 25,000 euros, which is quite a big amount.

[00:04:30]This is me, my husband, our son Bence, our older daughter Adele, and smaller daughter Panni.

[00:04:39]We had some [music] debts, so we paid that. We bought a car, we bought some essentials, and we put it aside, [music] so we can have always something to touch when something goes sideways.

[00:04:51]The baby expecting loan, the concept is good, but from the psychological side, I think [music] it's it's a really big pressure for the families. You had like a five-year plan, and you have to get pregnant in that five-year window. And this is with the second child and with the third one. [music] And if you can't have kids, then you have to pay it back with a penalty.

[00:05:33]>> [music] [music] [music] >> If you look at it from the outside, in a way, I do feel they are supporting big families.

[00:06:14]But, in another way, I think [music] they are actually not supporting those who need the biggest support.

[00:06:30]If you break it down, and if you think about it really deeply, I don't feel like it's they can actually call themselves as family-friendly.

[00:07:10]>> [music] [music] >> for >> I'm 32 years old. I have two kids and I live in Budapest and I work here.

[00:08:49]It was 2 years ago. This was my biggest fear to get pregnant with an unwanted child.

[00:08:56]My menstruation was late for like five or six days.

[00:09:00]I figured I'm pregnant and then I called my doctor and I was like I don't want this baby and he said that I have to go to a committee to say why I don't want this baby.

[00:09:14]Then he said that they will give you time to think and then you have to go back. They will make a decision and then you will get an appointment for the abortion.

[00:09:27]It would take weeks and also he said that he would have to make an ultrasound so I can hear the baby's uh heartbeat.

[00:09:44]Emotionally, it's too much.

[00:09:48]So I said, "No, I don't want this and I will go somewhere abroad where they can do [music] it without this circus."

[00:09:57]I went to Slovakia. I found an appointment within 2 weeks.

[00:10:06]They want [music] you to reconsider your first decision, which is I don't think it's fair since they put you through a lot of things.

[00:10:16]The decision that I made out of knowing that I would not be able to give them that happiness that I want to [music] give anyone.

[00:10:30]And since I have two kids, it's more hard. It would be about them as well.

[00:10:57]I think the heartbeat law is unhuman.

[00:11:03]How can you make a person listen to something that is already has a heartbeat >> [music] >> that she doesn't want.

[00:11:14]I think it's torture.

[00:12:04]>> [music] [music] [music] >> The fertility [music] rate in South Korea, according to Statistics Korea, is 0.74 in 2024, and which is very far below the replacement rate, which is 2.1, and also [music] still very much lower than the OECD fertility rate, which is 1.5.

[00:13:45]Korean government is concerned about the less human resources in the labor market. And obviously, if there are less human resources, it says the economic growth will be threatened. [music] And already, this lower birth rate has impacted significantly not only manufacturing, [music] but also service sector or many other professional [music] sectors.

[00:14:18]The fertility rate in 1960s [music] was very high, which was six.

[00:14:24]That was the time when South Korean government started to the more industrialization.

[00:14:30]The government launched a first family [music] planning campaign.

[00:14:36]The government was offering free contraception pills for women [music] and also free vasectomies for men.

[00:14:44]But in 1990s, [music] when South Korea was undergoing the IMF economic crisis, the birth rate started falling down.

[00:14:54]Then finally, in 2005, the birth rate reached 1.08, and that was a shock.

[00:15:02]And the government realized that the lower birth rate can [music] threaten the future economic growth.

[00:15:12]So since then, [music] there has been huge, massive, significant investment in family policy, [music] child care policy.

[00:15:37]>> [music] [music] >> The corporate culture, such as rigid promotion culture, long working [music] hours, or competitiveness in the labor market, has significantly contributed to the lower birth rate in South Korea.

[00:15:55]And they do not help at all for younger people to be more encouraged to have a children.

[00:16:15]>> [music] >> The Korean government started encouraging corporations to have more family-friendly policy within the corporations.

[00:16:43]For example, giving them more incentives, >> [music] >> and also giving them certificate. So, there are some more advantages if you are certified, for example, in terms of getting loans from the bank.

[00:16:59]Whereas in the past, the caring responsibility was given to the family, mainly women, but now there is more social consensus saying that it should be distributed between state, market, and the family. And corporations is one of those providers.

[00:17:38]>> [music] >> So, when we think about how we can encourage people having more children, the government [music] recently they limited working hours to 52 hours.

[00:17:58]And most of the firms, they have to follow the rule.

[00:18:02]However, the working hours is far longer than any other OECD countries in terms of being able to have more reconciliation between work and child care.

[00:18:15]I think this is something we need to consider for both corporate and the government in terms of how they can actually encourage young people to have more children.

[00:18:26]Giving them time for [music] care for their children.

[00:19:01]>> [laughter] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I'm just looking into one blog um talking about radical feminist event in South Korea. So, as you can see here, they were saying, "I just want to live by myself."

[00:20:51]>> [music] >> Or I'm born not to marry.

[00:20:55]Or I had, you know, men already.

[00:20:58]Or mainly they just wanted to respect themselves.

[00:21:03]In Korea, having child in out of marriage is not really socially accepted. That means also eventually they are not going to have children in their life.

[00:21:15]We did a study around the stratification of uh reproduction among women in South Korea. What I have noticed, there was a huge kind of backlash uh coming from women, young women, especially uh talking about the government, talking about fertility rate.

[00:21:34]I do believe that this movement has become a social phenomenon.

[00:21:40]So, for example, when you look at the latest data in terms of the proportion of young people aged 30 to 34 who never marry has tripled.

[00:21:58]>> [cheering] >> The current generation's attitude toward life and marriage is very different compared to >> [music] >> the previous generations, especially for girls, they prioritize more of their self-interest and their career development rather than becoming a mother in their future.

[00:22:27]>> They wouldn't care whether the lower birth rate will go or lower [music] in South Korea, but what they do care is about the reproduction should be considered as women's right rather than [music] kind of uh a tool.

[00:22:45]So, what they really argue is that bringing the right of reproduction first and then the autonomous decision will come through.

[00:22:56]>> [music] >> The main problem in South right now having children it is a burden. [music] If you can't afford it you won't be able to raise your children with a higher very much, [music] you know, decent education. Then it will become like a failure in the society.

[00:23:18][music] If you are employed by large, very much stable >> [music] >> capital corporations, you will be very much encouraged by their policy.

[00:23:30]However, if you are working as a freelancer or self-employed [music] or if you are working in a medium small-size company the structures are not [music] there.

[00:23:41]Those particular group of women and young couples who are structurally marginalized and therefore [music] involuntarily giving up on having children or even postpone their childbirth.

[00:23:56]And this is something we need [music] to consider in order to increase the fertility rate.

[00:24:04]Everyone should have their own choice.

[00:24:06]It shouldn't [music] be imposed by their employers or by the state. Reproduction is not obligation.

[00:24:14]It is more of a right.

[00:24:16]When you are willing to have children you should be supported and that responsibility [music] needs to be shared between the state and the corporations and [music] the family.

[00:24:40]>> [music]