"Jang Wonyoung bought a 10 billion KRW apartment..." This 'Sickness' that 2030s are suffering from [Trend+] : Nate News

The relative deprivation felt by the youth is becoming clearer. While in the past they bottled these feelings up or tried not to show them, recently there is a clear trend of naming the feeling itself as a 'symptom' and consuming it with laughter. Neologisms like "Broke Pain (痛) incoming," and "Working Class Pain incoming" symbolize this.

Mentions of 'Broke Pain' (거지통) and 'Working Class Pain' (서민통) over the past month skyrocketed 43,000% and 1,662%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

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"I went to a department store in Gangnam, and seeing well-dressed grandmas and grandpas wandering around leisurely gave me Broke Pain."

"When I heard IVE's Jang Wonyoung bought property worth 10 billion KRW, I felt truly deprived. Of course, she earned it through hard work, but the reality that I work hard too and still can't afford a tiny room in Seoul makes me so sad."

"I went to a department store in Pangyo for work, and seeing rich, dressed-up young men and women shopping leisurely during a weekday lunch break just made me even more jealous."

BUT

The relative poverty rate for youth aged 19-34 was 7.6% in 2023, down from 11.6% in 2012. In international comparisons, Korean youth income conditions are relatively favorable. Korea's relative poverty rate for youth was 8.7% in 2022, ranking 9th among 38 OECD countries.

Conversely, life satisfaction shows the opposite result. Last year, the life satisfaction score for Korean youth was 6.5 out of 10, ranking 31st among 38 OECD countries.

"Expressions like 'Broke Pain' and 'Working Class Pain' seem to be self-deprecating language stemming from a reality where people have lost leisure in life."

"This is less simple self-deprecation and closer to accepting reality through humor, a determination to say, 'Let's try to live even harder anyway.'"

"While acknowledging the changed reality, such as polarization and wealth concentration, this can be seen as the unique spirit and coping mechanism of the younger generation, who choose to laugh it off and endure rather than falling into excessive despair."

The language of the youth: Working Class Pain, Broke Pain.