Whenever I browse sites like Twitter, Reddit, or YouTube, I keep seeing the same claim from a surprisingly large number of foreign users.
When BTS enlisted, people were saying things like, “Their military service will seriously hurt South Korea’s GDP,” or that K-pop is Korea’s main export industry, or that South Korea basically survives on Squid Game, Parasite, and BTS.
Even from the perspective of someone who has never studied economics, does that make any sense? Has there ever been a country in history whose primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were insignificant, while entertainment alone became so dominant that it sustained the entire economy?
South Korea has been manufacturing semiconductors since the 1980s. It produces and exports smartphones, automobiles, televisions, ships, batteries, and even tanks, fighter jets, and skyscraper construction technology. What exactly do these people think the country lives on?
By that logic, was Japan’s economy supported not by Toyota, Sony, or Toshiba, but by Ultraman, Gundam, and Pikachu? Does Finland survive on Angry Birds and Steve from Minecraft rather than Nokia? Is Poland carried by Geralt of Rivia? Does Spain really live off bullfighting? Do Asterix and Titeuf keep France’s economy afloat? When people say things like that about other countries, everyone recognizes it as nonsense.
So why is it that when it comes to South Korea, so many people casually believe the absurd idea that it’s a country with nothing except Parasite, Squid Game, and BTS?
To begin with, no matter how successful Japan has been at spreading its soft power through Pikachu, Mario, and other cultural icons, do people really think it could sustain its economy and industry on that reputation alone without a strong foundation in electronics, manufacturing, and advanced technology?
If a country doesn’t even have productive industries that generate wealth in the first place, how is it supposed to create, consume, and export pop culture?
submitted by /u/Dangerous-Abrocoma-5
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