[Weekly Kyunghyang] As the KOSPI 5000 era opens, interest in the stock market is exploding. Every day the news speculates about how far the KOSPI index might rise, and it is filled with reports that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have hit record highs. The number of active stock-trading accounts has surpassed 100 million. The scale of debt-fueled investing (borrowing to invest) has exceeded 30 trillion KRW. On one side, people say, “It will go higher, so you are a fool if you are not in stocks now,” while on the other, people confess anxiety, saying, “Is everyone making money in stocks except me?” This is the result of President Lee Jae Myung emphasizing revitalization of the stock market since taking office. He has said, “I will make the stock market an alternative investment vehicle on par with real estate,” and, “We will make it clear that if you play games in the Republic of Korea stock market, you will be ruined.”

However, not everyone invests in stocks. According to the Korea Securities Depository, as of December 2024 there were 14.1 million domestic individual investors holding shares in domestically listed companies. In other words, roughly 37 million people are not investing in stocks. Nor can everyone invest. To invest in stocks, you need money, information, and time. The larger your assets, the higher your rate of return.

What is missing is a discussion of how to build a social structure in which people who work diligently can live well. A young person moving from one low-wage, precarious job to another said that not investing in the KOSPI 5000 era is “not a voluntary choice but a form of giving up.” Another young person said, “Under the banner of investment and assets, the lives of ordinary people are being erased and marginalized.”

“I do not know about KOSPI 5000, but a tray of eggs costs 8,000 KRW. Vegetables and rice are expensive, too. I am afraid to go to the supermarket.” That was the answer from A (29) when asked whether KOSPI 5000 had changed daily life. A earns money working at a hospital but said the high cost of living makes it hard. To buy ingredients even a little cheaper, A goes to a traditional market at dawn on weekends, and uses vintage shops for clothing. A has worked for five years but, as a contract worker, has changed jobs once a year. Student loan debt remains. A does not currently invest in stocks; there is no money to invest. A said, “Without parental support, if you are living alone you cannot afford to invest in stocks. Most of what I earn goes to living expenses. Saving is difficult.” A added, “Even if I repay my student loan, I will need a mortgage. I wonder whether one can live in this society without debt.” For A, investing in stocks is a distant story.

B (32), who assembles furniture, invested in stocks a few years ago but has not been able to do so recently, even as prices have risen. B said, “To invest in stocks you need to look at financial statements and study, but I do not have that leeway. I work 12 hours a day and can do nothing after I get home.” B leaves the house around 4~5 a.m. After loading furniture at a logistics center, delivering, and assembling, it is 8~9 p.m. Furniture assemblers are nominally sole proprietors contracted with subcontractors that receive transport commissions from furniture companies, but in substance they are specially employed workers who labor under specific direction and supervision.

Among young people, it is widely accepted that it is hard to live comfortably on labor income alone. An even harsher reality is that securing a stable job is not easy. C (26) got a job at a small company, then, due to trauma, spent more than a year out of work, living in isolation as a withdrawn youth. At the company, they did not sign a contract and made C work without a fixed term. They assigned different tasks each time, while saying that if C did not do them properly, they could not keep C employed. The monthly pay was 1.5 million KRW, with no paid leave. C said, “I have no confidence about finding something new, and being repeatedly told I am doing poorly left me exhausted,” adding, “At some point, I reached a state where I could no longer work.” Falling into depression, C felt lost and afraid about what kind of work would be possible, and simply rested. That is how C became a ‘resting youth’.

According to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics, as of the end of last year there were 710,000 ‘resting youth,’ the highest since statistics began in 2003. While the number of young people working at large corporations (1.57 million) hit an all-time high, those working at small and medium-sized businesses (7.41 million) shrank to a record low. C said not investing in stocks is closer to giving up than to a voluntary choice. C said, “I never had much saved in the first place, but I am burdened by the idea of tying up money in stocks, and I feel great anxiety about possibly losing it,” adding, “If I had surplus funds, I might have considered investing, but the prospect of losing my living expenses looms too large.” Even part-time jobs are hard to find in the region. D (23), a university student living in the region, said, “Even part-time jobs want prior experience, and openings that do not require it draw a flood of applicants. Sometimes I cannot even get an interview, and even when I do, I often fail. I barely manage to get hired for restaurant shifts.”

For people without assets, the stock market feels even riskier. E (36) invested in stocks with money earned from work at a shipyard and in delivery gigs, tripled the stake, then watched almost all of it disappear, concluding, ‘this is not for me,’ and no longer invests. “If you do not invest, you do not incur losses,” E said. E added, “Studying can increase the odds of making money, but given the structure of the market, retail investors cannot beat big capital. That is not really a matter of study.” F (29) also cited ‘the risk of losing principal’ as the primary reason for not investing. According to the Korea Capital Market Institute, during the COVID-19 boom in stocks from March to October 2020, two out of three (62%) new investors in the domestic market incurred losses. Fifty-four percent of the newcomers were in their 20s and 30s. Researchers attributed the result to overconfidence in their own ability and frequent trading driven by a tendency to view stock investing as a kind of jackpot opportunity.

Revitalizing the stock market is a necessary policy insofar as it lifts an undervalued domestic capital market and channels funds to healthy firms. The problem is that while the government seems to encourage individuals to invest, it is not pursuing an active discussion of how to reduce inequality. Han Young-seop, head of Finance and Future, said by phone, “People often say you should invest only with spare money, but where would young people and citizens below the middle class have spare money?” He continued, “They are investing with money that is not spare, money they cannot afford to lose, and an enormous number of people have their lives mortgaged to the stock market. Retail investors dying in the shadow of massive assets are invisible.”

Han said, “Tax policies such as a financial investment income tax are needed so that the stock market’s fruits can be shared across the public, but the government is looking only at stock investing itself.” The financial investment income tax passed the National Assembly in 2020 under a bipartisan agreement and was set to take effect, but politicians repeatedly delayed implementation, and in December 2024 they passed a bill abolishing it before it was enforced. Especially as the value of labor gradually declines with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), some argue that society needs a debate on how to distribute social services and whether basic income is feasible, yet such discussions are not taking place in earnest.

In the end, with the government standing back and leaving matters to individual effort, even a line on social media sparked controversy: ‘Buy stocks with the money you would spend on Dujjonku (Dubai chewy cookies).’ A said, “Dujjonku may be pricey, but it is less than 10,000 KRW,” adding, “It reads as if you must invest every last bit of money for tasty food and hobbies into stocks in order to live without worry in old age, and that is frightening.” G (26), a university student who invested during the stock boom in 2020 but no longer does, said, “I am not sure that young people beginning to invest in stocks will make their lives more stable,” adding, “A prolonged slump is continuing, and I suspect responsibility is being shifted onto individuals in the form of ‘you did not do financial self-help’ or ‘you did not read self-improvement books and work hard.’” D said, “It feels odd that there is a mood of recommending stocks even while belittling the small sources of happiness in daily life.”

H (31) said that investing in stocks does not dramatically improve life. H began investing in U.S. stocks in 2020 but said the anxiety about the future has not gone away. H said trust that the social safety net will function properly has broken down, pushing young people into risky investments. In the words of H: “If you have worked 30 to 40 years honestly without committing fraud, you should not have to fear a miserable old age. If there were trust that the basics such as housing, health care, and child-rearing would be sufficiently guaranteed, I would not invest either. But it does not seem that the state protects the value of the assets of people who work hard and save in banks, and it seems it will not in the future. In this environment, for people like me, investing in risk assets becomes in part ‘forced.’ Because my U.S. stock investing is keeping up with inflation I feel a little less anxious; if it were not keeping up or I were losing money, would I not have moved into even riskier investments?”

Some also argue that a social climate that emphasizes stock investing can influence the perceptions of the young generation. The concern is that young investors acquire a capital-friendly disposition that accepts corporate wrongdoing without criticism. G said, “I came to distance myself from stocks because I felt repulsion toward the values that are naturally internalized when investing,” adding, “Even though young people are in a position similar to workers who go on strike, they sometimes take the side of capital with the logic that strikes must be blocked because they bring stock prices down.” G said, “Investment logic appears on campus in various ways,” adding, “As universities become corporatized and student councils focus on partnerships with companies, those who oppose this are treated through suppression and control.”

Some young people avoid stocks because of investors’ ‘crisis is an opportunity’ logic. I (27) said, “Watching the war between Israel and Palestine, I felt disillusioned as people around me said, ‘War has broken out now, so buy Hanwha shares (a weapons maker),’ focusing only on the numbers.” J (30) said the recent stock frenzy felt distasteful. J said, “Stocks reflect polarization of wealth, but that aspect does not seem to be addressed much,” adding, “People who invest in companies that develop weapons of war and exploit workers think only about higher corporate profits; why not think about those who are dying and the workers?”

What do young people want the state to do now? G said, “I hope that the services that make up daily lifehousing, education, and careare expanded as basic rights rather than being shifted onto individual investment behavior.” G said, “During the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit last October, global leaders came and went and Jensen Huang (the Nvidia CEO) had a fried-chicken meet-up, which made investors cheer; yet behind that was the death of a Vietnamese migrant worker amid an intensified crackdown. I wish we would look squarely at the concrete lives of ordinary people beneath capital’s feast.” C said, “Young eople turn to stocks because there are no jobs and it is precarious to live on wage income, so it is puzzling to advocate revitalizing the stock market rather than solving the root problem.” C said, “If the stock market is vitalized, it may be good for the minority who make money and the companies that receive investment, but what about people who do not buy stocks?” and added, “Who is the KOSPI 5000 for?”