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Man\u2019s best friend might end up replacing him, that is if we keep it up. It\u2019s only natural given that humans have seemingly created an environment uniquely hostile to ourselves. As we careen into the second half of 2024, the cost of housing and sustenance remains untenable for many who face days clouded by long hours and low pay. Hence the heralding of the Maltese<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Countries across the globe are facing population declines; as health journal The Lancet<\/a> predicted, 97% of them will eventually have fertility rates too low to sustain their size. Such concerns are especially pronounced in South Korea<\/a>, where the fertility rate dwindled to the lowest in the world at 0.72 as of 2023. The rate is well below the 2.1 figure<\/a> needed to maintain a stable population.\u00a0<\/p>\n And while babies might be sparse, dogs abound. Households with pets rose from 3.5 million to 6 million from 2012 to 2023, according to data from Korea\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs as first reported by the Korea Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2023, sales of strollers for dogs outpaced sales of strollers for babies, the Wall Street Journ<\/em>al<\/a> reports, citing data from Korean e-commerce platform Gmarket. It looks as if the trend will continue in 2024 as well. There\u2019s been a turning of the tables since the website conducted the study in 2021, when baby strollers stood at 67% and puppy prams at 33%,per the Korea Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Some politicians have taken umbrage at these alternative bundles of joy. \u201cWhat I worry about is young people not loving each other,\u201d said South Korea labor minister Kim Moon-soo in 2023, according to the WSJ<\/em>. \u201cInstead, they love their dogs and carry them around. They don\u2019t get married, and they don\u2019t have children.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Given the long-term economic ramifications of an aging and shrinking population, the also childless and dog-owning South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol declared the phenomenon a \u201cdemographic national emergency.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe birth strike is women\u2019s revenge on a society that puts impossible burdens on us and doesn\u2019t respect us,\u201d Jiny Kim, an office worker in her thirties, told the New York Times<\/em><\/a>. Indeed, there are larger societal issues at play to which politicians seemingly turn a blind eye.<\/p>\n Low birth rates have become a conservative talking point<\/a>, not just in South Korea. The United States, too, faces a steadily declining birth rate<\/a>, which Elon Musk has taken an interest in<\/a> along with Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance<\/a>. Vance belittled<\/a> Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats, calling them \u201cchildless cat ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n But politicians might as well be shaking their fists at the sky, as long as they continue to shirk the actual root of falling birth rates. Experts have diagnosed<\/a> the issue as the fallout from the skyrocketing cost of raising children, bleak labor markets, and the sexism rooted in these environments that leads to the motherhood penalty<\/a>. South Korean women cited financial and cultural barriers as reasons for not having children, explaining to the BBC<\/a> that one major fear is career consequences for taking time off from work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, pets simply cost less than children, especially in countries like the U.S. and South Korea<\/a> where the price tag for private or higher education is exorbitant. The pet industry, therefore, booms as young adults are barred from affording a family.<\/p>\n South Korea\u2019s former gender equality minister, Chung Hyun-back, pointed to the country\u2019s \u201cpatriarchal culture\u201d as one of the major obstacles to her goal of increasing the fertility rate. She explained to the New York Times<\/em><\/a> that she, too, has no children, in order to focus on her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n The workplace culture certainly isn\u2019t helping matters, as economist Lyman Stone explained to NPR<\/a> in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a sense [in South Korea] that, particularly for men but increasingly for women as well, your contribution in the office is really what makes you a person of status and standing in society, even more than in America,\u201d said Stone. The intense work culture likely sharpens for women in the workplace, who hold fewer leadership positions<\/a> and struggle to climb the corporate ladder.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just sexism that pervades the workplace and depresses fertility rates, it\u2019s also the dating world. Across the globe, studies<\/a> have shown that Gen Z men and women have begun to lean across different spectrums, with Gen Z men becoming more conservative. It\u2019s led to some offshoots calling off heterosexual dating entirely<\/a>, taking form as the more radical 4B movement<\/a> in South Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a datable man in Korea\u2014one who will share the chores and the childcare equally,\u201d Yejin, a woman in her thirties, told the BBC<\/a>. \u201cAnd women who have babies alone are not judged kindly.\u201d<\/p>\n Woof.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nExplore our new special issue.\u00a0<\/strong>A Wall Street legend gets a radical makeover, crypto iniquity, misbehaving poultry royalty, and more.\u00a0Read the stories.<\/a><\/div>\n