Why do all these rational people go up to Seoul to live?
With a 10-million-won deposit and 500,000 won monthly,
in Seoul you can barely secure a tiny studio. Just barely.
In Sejong you can live in a 35-pyeong apartment — and not even a three-year-old one.
Both regions are designated speculation hot zones. So imagine what other, non-hot-zone regions must be like...
People call people.
It seems food, clothing, and shelter are no longer the three essentials of human life. Belonging, solidarity, and a longing for collective intelligence are what move them.
Among them, the insiders won't move, and the others won't want to leave either.
The provinces are the same. They also have their own insiders and outsiders.
The problem is fear — that a Seoul insider could become a provincial outsider.
It's disorienting. All those details hardened through grueling training — the moment they come down to the provinces,
they're mercilessly devalued as little more than flimsy accessories.
Those experiences and regrets accumulate through word of mouth.
What do young people want?
1) Romance?
2) A job? Success? Money?
3) Marriage? Children?
Most of those who went up to Seoul — especially lately — don't seem to be after 3.
They don't seem to be pursuing romance with soft-heartedness, nor pouring themselves into success or money.
So what is it? Inertia? Last-ditch behavior to forget relative deprivation?
Fear of a situation or capacity that can't go to Seoul, or fear of going down to the provinces after being in Seoul?
More than value-assessment,
more than peer-assessment,
it may be self-assessment conscious of peers.
Ah.. are there really so few things you can do in the provinces?
If the older generation can't return to the provinces,
what can young people do together?
What does it take for the future older generation to hold their own place in the provinces?
Or how are those already doing something there doing it?
Where can we find information for them?
Do they have their own rotary clubs like Seoul's former establishment?
Meanwhile, what can I do?
In the end, knowing it's an irrational choice, I don't want to throw myself into it.
Yet even so, I don't know what to do.
If I could get my bearings — if I had something to do — there would be no reason to go up to Seoul..
And yet I'm looking at housing.
In the provinces it's hard to find work. It's hard to create work. Ironically, it's hard to find people.
Going to support agencies and business offices is like walking into their own round — they all know each other.
And when you go to another agency, it's always the same people.
I really don't want to go up.
But there's nothing I can do on my own.
