[In-Depth Look] What Happens When You Block the Path of Youth

Recently, a real estate agent in Gangnam and Seocho said, "Many young people in their 20s and 30s come with tens of billions of won in cash to buy high-priced apartments that do not qualify for loans." Most of them are newly wealthy individuals who have made large sums of money through startups, YouTube, and cryptocurrency. This agent added, "Because of these new wealthy individuals, no matter how much the government tightens loan regulations, it seems difficult for real estate prices to fall anytime soon."

While I am impressed by the ability of these young people to accurately capture the flow of money and generate huge sums at the crossroads of finance, I also feel that talented young people from the next generation, having lost opportunities within the established system, are being driven to accumulate capital through business and investment. As this generation grows, most of the promises made by the older generation are going bankrupt. When I was a third-year lawyer and first participated in the general meeting as a delegate of the Korean Bar Association, a rule limiting candidacy for the association president to 15 years of experience was overwhelmingly passed. Considering military service and university graduation for men, one must be at least in their mid-40s to qualify for candidacy.

For the past 20 years, the older generation has blocked the paths of young people in this way. When the 586 generation was in their 40s, they became corporate executives, members of the National Assembly, and high-ranking public officials. The MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) is still forced to remain in junior positions even in their 40s. The 586 generation, who already held key social positions in their 30s, tell the MZ generation to study more and work harder, using young people like batteries to be replaced, while trying to hold onto the positions they had in their 30s until their 70s.

Ultimately, it seems that young people have begun to give up on the institutional paths promised by the older generation. Instead, they have opened new paths and are harvesting abundant money fruits from an inexhaustible money tree, growing into a new "Young and Rich" class. Interestingly, those who tried to push out and check young people threatening their status within the system are now trying to receive even a single penny from the newly emerged Young and Rich. As platform companies started as startups, received large investments, and began sharing some of it with the older generation, so-called elites rushed to uncritically support them, scrambling to secure positions and leftovers. The Hwacheon Daeyu case, when examined, was also operated by a few young elites planning it and combining with established power holders and dignitaries to receive leftovers.

The new Young and Rich have learned how to train and use the cowardly older generation, thereby growing personal wealth and contributing to the overall rise in social asset value, yet they do not directly engage in public affairs. Our society has grown based on young elites willingly dedicating their lives to public service with the mindset of "We may lack money, but we do not lack pride." The price our future generations must pay is the result of blocking their paths and pushing them to live cunning lives that serve only themselves.

Roman architecture with a long history bears the names of those who donated to build them. The Roman ruling class, upon earning money, returned it to society and earned the right to have their names engraved on buildings or donation sites. As long as this spirit of putting public interest before private gain was maintained through generations of Roman rulers, the Roman Empire grew to dominate the world. However, when the ruling class began building walls solely to protect their own estates, paradoxically, the decline of the Roman Empire and the thousand-year Dark Ages of the Middle Ages began. The endless greed of the older generation, who refuse to even give opportunities to young people, will ultimately lead everyone to build their own high walls for themselves, resulting in a future that is neither safer nor happier than the times without walls.

Sangsoo Park, Vice President of the Korean Bar Association