I just find it hard that these times, it's more like heaven from human history point of view.

At least in there, there's no active war (there is a threat but bullets aren't flying around or you have problem acquiring food and water), and cities are moderately safe, you can buy stuff with a few clicks, many entertainments to choose from, convenient phones etc etc. And you get to take advantage of those without earning a fortune.

It's so absurd to think this is some sort of hell. They don't know actual hell like past and some present people are experiencing.

Why don't those people appreciate the situation they're in?

Hedonic adaptation. Humans can quickly become accustomed to circumstances, rich or poor, and then they can start criticizing it. This is in fact one of the prime drivers for innovation in the world, because those that thought everything was already good enough wouldn't be the ones innovating.

The working culture in South Korea absolutely seems like hell compared to most of human history. People had much more free time in agricultural societies, and they mostly spent it outdoors, instead of slaving it in the offices doing meaningless work to make shareholders richer.

Exactly. And hedonic adaptation makes all that entertainment with phones, TVs etc meaningless.

Lack of free time is hell. Especially if you spend all your days in the same drab office building. Office work is fine in and of itself, but humans are meant to move, to be outside for a good portion of the day. Work-life balance is more important than the latest gadgets.

People starving, born with disabilities/incurable diseases, people at the front line of a war, especially if critically wounded, people caught as a prisoner being tortured, people living their lives as a slave with physical violence and any other serious situations I couldn't imagine, seem like worse than someone at least with physically safe condition and possibly a way to escape if one wants to.

The term "Hell Joseon" was widely popularized (Joseon is the old name of Korea, and incidentally still the name used for North Korea in Korean, Chinese and Japanese). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Joseon

"Escaping Hell Joseon" is apparently a thing: https://asiatimes.com/2019/12/75-of-young-want-to-escape-sou...

I think only a small percentage of respondents have brought their aspiration into practice, but they obviously think other countries are better than Korea. I'd love to see a poll asking them which countries they would prefer.

I don't think they are entirely wrong. Economic hardship and uncertain future for young people are prevalent in all developed economies, but South Korea also suffers from terrible work-life balance and strict work culture (probably significantly worse than Japan on both counts). And recent admissions scandals[1][2] have made Koreans even more skeptical about the fairness of the system. I'm not sure if Ivy League universities are any better, but the Korean scandals were really in-your-face.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/disgraced-ex-sout... [2] https://graphics.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/Interactives/...

>The page shows 78% of young men with same opinion. But -- what other countries do they think would be better?

The women: most western European nations probably.

The men: South Korea 30+ years ago

It doesn't matter what they think, Hell and Heaven are relative not absolute

Humans do not operate in absolute metrics, it's always relative.