“Under the party leader, I will establish a ‘10–30 Policy Committee,’ hold regular party-government consultations on youth issues, and institutionalize an inter-ministerial youth affairs meeting. I will guarantee that at least one elected member of the party’s Supreme Council is a young person.” (Democratic Party leadership candidate Kim Min-seok)
“I will nominate one male and one female proportional representative in their 20s or 30s and place them in positions on the party list that are virtually guaranteed to win seats. One of the party leader’s appointed Supreme Council members will be selected from among young party members.” (Democratic Party leadership candidate Jung Cheong-rae)
“I will launch the ‘100,000 Jang Bogo Project’ to send 100,000 unemployed young people overseas. I will raise the university dormitory accommodation rate to 50 percent and support a ‘Super ISA’ (Individual Savings Account) as seed capital for young people.” (Democratic Party leadership candidate Song Young-gil)
These are the youth pledges put forward by the leading candidates ahead of the Democratic Party’s August 17 national convention. After the party’s support among voters in their 20s and 30s fell short of expectations in the June 3 local elections, the Democratic Party began calling for “youth,” and that has continued into the party convention. What should we make of it?
As a reporter covering the National Assembly, and as a young person myself, the political world’s repeated invocation of “youth” has always felt hollow. Since I began covering politics, I have gone through both a presidential election and local elections, yet I cannot recall a single youth policy that made me think, “They got it right.”
To begin with, I question whether there is really such a thing as a single “youth problem.”
As of last year, the wealth gap between the richest 20 percent and the poorest 20 percent of people in their twenties had widened to 34 times. Even people who are all classified as “young” naturally live with very different concerns.
Kim So-hee, the vocational high school student in the film Next Sohee who is sent to a call center internship and driven by call quotas and overwork, lives a life completely different from Jin Do-jun, the third-generation chaebol heir in the drama Reborn Rich who graduates from Seoul National University’s law school and starts an investment company.
Of course, there are problems that many young people commonly face: university, employment, marriage, childbirth, childcare, and housing. These are life challenges that are often encountered during youth.
But grouping all of them together under the label of “youth policy” is not an accurate diagnosis.
For example, creating a society where platform workers, contract workers, and freelancers—not just employees of large corporations, public institutions, or professionals—can also have “good jobs” is, in itself, an employment policy. Expanding those jobs not only in Seoul but throughout the regions is also an employment policy.
Likewise, creating a society where anyone, regardless of income or assets, can obtain housing that meets minimum standards is, in itself, a housing policy.
But the moment all of these areas are lumped together as “youth policy,” accurate diagnosis goes out the window, and only slogans remain. In other words, it becomes difficult to present anything more concrete than saying, “We’ll do something for these struggling young people.”
There is also the side effect that while there are people who genuinely need policy support, everyone else who happens to be young gets lumped together with them.
I do not want to doubt the sincerity of politicians who say they want to solve young people’s problems.
However, the limitations of “youth policy” that amounts to little more than a slogan seem clear.
One solution would be for more young people themselves to enter politics. Of course, not the “2 p.m. Yeouido youth” who spend weekday afternoons moving from one political event to another, but young politicians from a wide range of backgrounds and social classes.
I hope the next leader of the ruling party will promise, “In the next general election, I will nominate more young candidates from more diverse backgrounds. I will also establish mechanisms to ensure that the voices of young party members are reflected in the way the party is run,” and then become someone who keeps that promise.
Posted by Freewhale98