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Are Pets Replacing Children in South Korea?
Wall Street Journal ^ | 06/07/2013 | Steven Borowiec

Posted on 06/06/2013 6:53:52 PM PDT by TexGrill

When Shin Ye-eun, 33, is not working at her job at an international clothing company, she spends much of her time with Betty, her three-year-old English bulldog. The unmarried, childless Ms. Shin feels a maternal sort of love for her dog.

“I love her like my child. She is my child, and I know she knows that,” she said.

The number of pet owners in South Korea recently passed 10 million, or about one in five people, for the first time. The increase in pet ownership is taking place while fewer South Koreans are getting married and having children, and some analysts suggest the two phenomena are related.

In South Korea, factors such as the high cost of raising and educating children and intense competition for top white-collar jobs have resulted in more adults staying single for longer and having fewer children when they do wed. More South Koreans of child-rearing age appear to be turning their nurturing instincts towards pets.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: southkorea
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To: KC_Lion

When Europe needed us, Patton was there. I merely carry on his tradition as an American concerned with bringing goodness to the world wherever it is needed...

Team America...F’ YEA! ;)


21 posted on 06/06/2013 7:51:33 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: impimp

That it’s been done for thousands of years is immaterial to my argument that it’s a selfish act.

I have never supported homosexual marriage. And I see nothing selfish about that stance. Maybe you do.

BTW, what if you do plan on using your kids to support you in your old age and they die before you do. Then what do you do? Is there a Plan B?


22 posted on 06/06/2013 7:55:02 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: Cowgirl of Justice

Re post 18, correct. I have personally seen instances of “ungrateful” children completely neglecting their parents in the latter’s old age. It’s a roll of the dice, isn’t it?


23 posted on 06/06/2013 7:56:54 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: Norm Lenhart

I have a term for Koreans who have pets: Vegetarian.


24 posted on 06/06/2013 7:57:27 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Valpal1

Fine, whatever lifts your boat.

I will go with guaranteed, professional care, even if it’s by “strangers.”

As I pointed out, I find a moral objection to breeding and raising your future help.


25 posted on 06/06/2013 8:07:57 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: TexGrill

this has already happened in the liberal bastion of Seattle.


26 posted on 06/06/2013 8:13:55 PM PDT by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless, indisputable clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: txrefugee

That always makes me shudder when they say”oh,the dogs will love this”.
I have a big back yard and the dog spends most of the time in his bed or taking the over the lounge chair when I get up.
So much for the big back yard that he loves.


27 posted on 06/06/2013 8:15:31 PM PDT by peteyd (A dog may bite you in the ass,but it will never stab you in the back.)
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To: TexGrill

in the North they ate all their pets.


28 posted on 06/06/2013 8:32:27 PM PDT by isom35
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To: OldPossum

Man are you ever in the wrong place. Who knew traditional family values warranted moral objections by ‘conservatives??

This is right up there with some freat conservative ideas like Obama not taking part in Cloward Piven, lesser evils and other recent bastions of conservative thought.


29 posted on 06/06/2013 8:44:13 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: txrefugee

yup that’s why i had kids, so they could take care of me when i was old. yuppers.


30 posted on 06/06/2013 9:08:06 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Amberdawn

i thnk if people don’t want to get married, they probably should not get married.

i think if they want to take care of pets, fine. lots of abandoned, perfectly fine animals could’use someone to take care of them.

i think if they want to get married and not have kids, fine. or kids, fine. or kids and pets, fine. or’pets first, then kids, fine.

there’s plenty of combinations that are perfectly fine. if people believe they arent’ ready for something, they probably are not. rather have everyone do well at things they feel they can commit to, rather than doing stuff they are unsure about and doing a terrible job, impacting others because of it.


31 posted on 06/06/2013 9:12:55 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: isom35

and some ate their children.


32 posted on 06/06/2013 9:16:01 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: TexGrill

PETS NORTH KOREA


33 posted on 06/06/2013 9:18:01 PM PDT by JoeProBono (Mille vocibus imago valet;-{)
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To: KittenClaws

I think if one is short a friend or something/someone to care for, they can find plenty to do at a retirement home or Veterans hospital. Animals are lovely, but shouldn’t be a substitute for another human being, only a plus.


34 posted on 06/06/2013 9:26:23 PM PDT by Amberdawn
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To: Secret Agent Man

That’s all fina and well, but what happens when a majority of people would rather raise pets instead of children?


35 posted on 06/06/2013 9:27:29 PM PDT by Amberdawn
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To: TexGrill

My neighborhood is full of nice houses, where the DINK couple works, and leaves the dog home during the day.

In sum, two people are working all day, to provide a beautiful home for their dog to live in.


36 posted on 06/06/2013 9:33:54 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: OldPossum
I’ve never understood that plan to use your offspring to care for you. It’s using them for your own selfish good.

so, you dont know much about history then?
37 posted on 06/06/2013 10:05:47 PM PDT by wafflehouse (RE-ELECT NO ONE !)
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To: Amberdawn

and point to me anytime in history this has occurred?

the global population continues to rise - mankind is not in danger of extinction. we are increasing in number, not going down.


38 posted on 06/06/2013 10:31:05 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Amberdawn

there is room for both. both are God’s creatures.


39 posted on 06/06/2013 10:35:30 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

One cannot compare subsistence living or even starvation, which was the lot of humankind for millenia, with the world we have today. The world population is predicted to rise to 9 billion and then fall off. The bigger problem is where the population fall off is happening, and that’s in all the major economies of the world, which are also those countries that have democratic, humane regimes. The population’s of many autocratic and theocratic countries are growing at a very fast pace compared to the former.


40 posted on 06/06/2013 10:39:35 PM PDT by Amberdawn
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