Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Young Koreans choose 'sharing' over 'winner-takes-all'
A scene from Netflix's smash hit series, "Squid Game" / Courtesy of Netflix
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Young Youth Foundation members would prefer a game that shares a large sum of money equally between participants over a game where one winner takes the pot, as seen in Netflix's original Korean drama “Squid Game,” a survey of members showed, Thursday.
The 6,036 foundation members, aged from 19 to 35, were asked which option they would prefer if faced with a “Squid Game”-like situation ― a game in which 456 people participate but only one winner takes all the prize money, while the remainder lose their lives.
When asked to choose between “all 456 participants surviving and sharing 100 million won each” and “only one participant surviving and winning 45.6 billion won,” 75 percent of the respondents said they would pick the former.
Some 71 percent also said they would prefer a “sustainable minimum social safety net” rather than a “one-time support through a large sum of money.”
“The results of the survey showed that respondents ― if they can set the rules of the game ― would choose coexistence rather than competition,” said Jong Bum-goo, chairman of the foundation.
When asked to select the presidential candidates' election pledges that appeal to them, 48 percent chose “supplying low-priced housing,” followed by 22 percent opting for “securing sustainable financial resources for welfare payments through reform of the national pension system,” and 12 percent for “offering lifelong basic income regardless of working income level.”