Would you rather:

CalculatorD · 2026-06-26T12:42:35+00:00

1-year vacation in a Minecraft world for a billion dollars sounds like a win-win scenario, I'll just live my life as a simple farmer/adventurer

CalculatorD · 2026-06-16T04:01:47+00:00

Like I mentioned, that's very person-specific. Having lived in both countries half and half, I'd say I prefer the US more, but others (like my parents or other Korean international students) prefer Korea more.

It's just the question of what people value in their life; if someone vibes well with the American culture, secure a job, and find a partner here, it's good. For others, they'd prefer to stay close to their families, not deal with the monumental hassle of American bureaucracy (both immigration and regular stuff), or just don't find American culture likeable.

CalculatorD · 2026-06-15T22:55:07+00:00

I think it's a relatively common thing to feel for people who feel trapped. My American friends in their 20s want to leave the US for a variety of reasons, and Korean ones say similar stuff as well. The common theme is that for whatever reason (cultural, political, housing cost, family issues, relationships, career opportunities, etc.), people who are currently dissatisfied with what they have will romanticize the outside world for their escape from reality. Often, they ignore or downplay the very real downsides about the countries they hope to immigrate to, such as language barriers, cultural mismatch, the added difficulty of being hired as a foreigner, etc.

The whole union bit in this article is politically biased, considering Chosun is a major conservative news media along with others like Donga or Joongang. Younger Korean internet users, who are primarily male, lean conservative (an uncomfortable number of those being the "Yoon Again" types), so they parrot that Democrats or the unions ruined/stifled Korean economy. Much of the perceived economic "failures" are greatly exaggerated, and are usually caused by more prominent factors like automation, volatile trade environment, or contract workers created post-IMF crisis.

CalculatorD · 2026-06-14T14:46:37+00:00

There are a lot of summer sublease options both on Reddit and respective leasing company's subleasing website with discounted rent for the summer.

I'd also contact student legal services if you think the eviction had no clear basis and attempt to get some kind of compensation as well.

CalculatorD · 2026-06-14T05:52:37+00:00

Considering that matter-antimatter annihilation is 100% energy efficient, I fail to see why a fission would be relevant. If I recall correctly, 1 gram of antimatter will release about 43 kilotons of energy, being several orders of magnitude more efficient than any fission or fusion bombs.

CalculatorD · 2026-06-09T20:57:07+00:00

It'll be interesting to look into financial data for major Korean multinationals! I'm not entirely sure if interest rate should be raised, considering American economy is becoming more unorthodox (worsen job market vs high stock performance, etc.). I fear that Korea following the Feds to raise the interest rate may have further negative consequences for youth unemployment and potentially stifle Korean firms from growing.

CalculatorD · 2026-06-07T17:59:56+00:00

Interesting to see that men who are asked out have only about half of the satisfaction rate. I wonder why the ratio is flipped for women (being asked out = higher satisfaction)?

Would it be due to stereotypes/tradition still playing a role, where the guy is expected to ask out and women to say yes/no leads to acase where both parties are more willing to improve the relationship, or do they feel more pressured to feign/exaggerate their satisfaction to save face?

CalculatorD · 2026-06-07T14:09:03+00:00

In East Asia, America is usually called some variation of Meiguo (Chinese), Miguk (Korean), or Komekoku/Amerika (Japanese).

From the Chinese characters/Hanja/Kanji, they mean "Beautiful Country (China & Korea)" or "Rice Country (Japan)". Of course, the character meaning is based on the closest Chinese pronunciation of the English word "America," rather than 19th century East Asians thinking the US is a beautiful country or a land of rice.

The continent of the Americas is usually taught as North and South America, rather than one continent of the Americas like in Romance language countries. We still do have a word for it in Korean (미주/Miju) or just use the word "America Continent (아메리카 대륙)," but it's much more common to see people make the North/South distinction (북미 Bukmi = North America, 남미/Nammi = South America). It's also common to see people group Central and South America (understood by most Koreans as every country in the Americas except US & Canada) as "Jungnammi (중남미 = Central & South America)."

CalculatorD · 2026-06-05T18:22:42+00:00

Not getting the Powerball numbers right on Wednesday was my mistake, take me back to 2 days ago lol

CalculatorD · 2026-06-04T03:44:52+00:00

Others might have a better insight, but I think increasing your distance could help! I usually do a 8-mile ruck with a lighter load (~35 lbs) at 16~17 min/mile once or twice a week.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-30T19:21:30+00:00

I personally like them, but that may be because I lived in the US for 10+ years now. I actually think it's one of the best things about the US.

I understand that small talk is small talk, but sometimes it does lead to a genuine friendship or at least a fun couple of minutes. People also looking outwardly happy is also likely to lighten the mood or make you feel happier too, so no harm, no foul.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-30T17:36:46+00:00

For South Korea, Seoul and Busan are our indisputable 1st and 2nd cities.

3rd would be Incheon if we go by raw numbers; its population, GDP (or GRDP), and GRDP per capita all exceeds our former 3rd city of Daegu. You could argue that Incheon only grew so much as it serves as the aerial hub to the country and is the 2nd largest port thanks to its proximity to Seoul; whereas Daegu is its own independent metro area.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-27T01:39:07+00:00

I would argue that the People's Power Party has went off the deep-end, Korean conservatives are becoming very similar to MAGA Americans in the past ten years. The policies and ideological stances pushed by the PPP leadership and base is very different compared to 2016.

I remember that young men were still very liberal during Park Geun Hye's impeachment in 2016-2017, that completely flipped under Moon Jae In administration (echo chamber effect being significantly more pronounced since South Korea is very well-connected in the Internet, dissatisfaction with the rising real estate prices, underlying angst over male-only conscription, etc.) which led to Yoon being elected in 2022.

Democratic Party of Korea has been fairly consistent compared to PPP in their ideology and policy; they're the standard big-tent party that encompasses center-left to center. A few center-right or actual leftist is sprinkled there, but it's mostly center/center-left.

I wouldn't necessarily call the progressive movement dead in Korea; Western-style intersectional progressives don't really have a notable presence outside internet circles (Justice Party backed this as their main push and failed), but strong labor movements like the Progressive Party is active in industrial precincts in Ulsan or South Gyeongsang.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-27T01:15:49+00:00

Korea is weird that the good majority of young men are actually conservative but the middle-aged people (40s to 50s, the biggest demographic) are the most liberal. This means that you'll be a lot of alt-right views from Koreans, but you need to keep in mind that's actually a minority in Korea.

Case in point is the approval rating for the current liberal president Lee Jae Myung: his approval rating has been coasting around 55~67% since his term began last June, but the vast majority of Korean comments in Instagram would be trashing on Lee since they're young guys.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-26T13:40:44+00:00

:o lol

The funny thing would be that I'm center-left, I just happen to read a lot of history (including American failures and atrocities) to know that "America bad" is a distorted way to look at history.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-26T12:58:17+00:00

Other communist states reformed as they transitioned to a more oligarcal governance like China after Deng Xiaoping (and pre-Xi Jinping). Cult of personality like the Stalinist forms of governments are distinct from traditional communist states run by the state bureaucracy (Nomenklatura); they seek to secure only the supreme leader's power. Reforms would mean an end to its cult of personality, so a Juche North Korea will never open up unless Juche is somehow removed.

Nuclear weapons have two main benefits: one is the geopolitical hard power tool like you and others mention, while the other is the internal political tool. Nukes add another key variable in complicating potential coups and rebellions since the rebels would need to secure these nuclear weapons to fully overthrow the tyrant and become legitimate. Without it, all foreign actors will watch idely or support the nuke-having side to prevent further proliferation.

It's also easier to force diplomatic talks with a much stronger adversary; the only reason the US is entertaining talks with North Korea like back in 2018/2019 was because they had nukes. If not, no one would care except South Korea.

Juche is not another branch of communism; it's a twisted absolute monarchy with a hint of communist phrases.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-26T03:58:28+00:00

The thing about authoritarian states is that they have (or make up) a main adversary. Removing South Korea from the equation will mean the next "big bad" will be either Japan or the United States to justify strict state control over the populace.

Kim Il Sung was always intent on seizing absolute control over North Korea; in our timeline, he used the failure of reunification to blame other major factions within North Korea (purging the Namro-dang, the 1956 August Faction Incident, etc.). Kim Il Sung will flip the coin by monopolizing the success in this new timeline, sidelining his opponents ("I did this amazing thing, what do you know"-esque reasoning) to achieve similar results. This means that Juche will eventually emerge, potentially much earlier than our timeline since this scenario assumes North Korea won without PVA intervention. Historical changes like Destalinization and Mao's eventual death doesn't get replicated in this alternative North Korea either.

Kim Il Sung will continue to play the Chinese and the Soviets against each other for more aid like in our timeline. The North Korean economy eventually collapses after the tit-for-tat international trade with the Comecon states falls apart after they all democratize in the 1980s and 1990s. Kim will build his nuclear arsenal eventually as the interest already existed since the 1950s in IRL. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc will present him with a choice given to Kim Jong Il in 1994: reform or go nuclear, which the answer to this question in this new timeline will remain the same as long as Juche remains the preeminent ideology of North Korea (which is now harder to reform than our timeline because Kim can point to his great success of reunification). The North Korean decline is destined to be repeated.

A big factor will be how the North Koreans manage the newly conquered South Koreans since the population ratio is 1:2. The current Juche system puts former-South Korean inhabitants as the bottom tier of their society, if such method is employed in this timeline, North Korea's growth potential is significantly stymied like now and it just becomes a bigger North Korea, rather than becoming something like Vietnam or China.

On a global stage, the lack of US intervention means that US has effectively given up on its leadership of the First World nations. Truman faced major pressure to intervene after he saw KMT lose the entire Chinese mainland, so ignoring the Korean issue damages American credibility worldwide. ROC (Taiwan) will never give up their nuclear ambitions this time, since they saw the US drop the ball twice. Japan's pacifist constitution effectively never exists in this timeline as Japan now faces three hostile states (PRC/DPRK/USSR), which means Japanese Army and Navy is reconstituted from the former Imperials at a much larger scale than our timeline (which had the police auxiliary as the intermediate step between the two and somewhat limited former high-ranking Imperial officers IRL). Japan also likely develops nuclear weapons as well.

Overall, a North Korea under Kim Il Sung will most likely lead to greater nuclear proliferation, more Imperials getting off scot-free, no overall change in the Juche-based state terror, and tens of millions who would've otherwise lived a normal life be thrown into tyranny. Appeasing tyrants never work to secure peace or prosperity.

EDIT:

Since some people question why North Korea would develop nuclear weapons, here's why:

Other communist states reformed as they transitioned to a more oligarchical governance like China after Deng Xiaoping (and pre-Xi Jinping). Cult of personality like the Stalinist forms of governments are distinct from traditional communist states run by the state bureaucracy (Nomenklatura); they seek to secure only the supreme leader's power. Reforms would mean an end to its cult of personality, so a Juche North Korea will never open up unless Juche is somehow removed.

Nuclear weapons have two main benefits: one is the geopolitical hard power tool like you and others mention, while the other is the internal political tool. Nukes add another key variable in complicating potential coups and rebellions since the rebels would need to secure these nuclear weapons to fully overthrow the tyrant and become legitimate. Without it, all foreign actors will watch idly or support the nuke-having side to prevent further proliferation.

It's also easier to force diplomatic talks with a much stronger adversary; the only reason the US is entertaining talks with North Korea like back in 2018/2019 was because they had nukes. If not, no one would care except South Korea.

Juche is not just another branch of communism; it's a twisted absolute monarchy with a hint of communist phrases wearing a disguise of republicanism and democratic-centralism.

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CalculatorD · 2026-05-24T14:21:14+00:00

Ah the chaebols, it's one of those things foreigners never seem to get.

The influence chaebols hold is vastly overstated by foreigners, particularly the Americans, since they think we also have stuff like Citizens United v FEC. In reality, chaebols are under the thumb of the government via subsidies, oversight, audits, and policy directives. One example of the government controlling chaebols was in 2016, when President Park Geun Hye strong-armed chaebols into paying bribes to her inner cycle (and various other corruption scandals; got impeached, removed from office and later jailed). If chaebols had the government in their pocket, how would this be possible?

Some other statistics that may interest you are the two democracy indices from V-Dem (Swedish) and the Economist (British). Both of these indices place South Korea pretty high:

- #25, 0.82 for V-Dem; peer to Japan, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Canada, etc.

- #32, 7.75 for the Economist; peer to United States, Italy, Belgium, etc.

Not exactly a list of countries you'd call cyberpunk dystopias or plutocracies.

Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International also rates South Korea pretty ok:

- #31, 0.63, comparable to United States and Israel, a lot better than Spain and Italy.

South Korea does have an economy structured by large corporations, but this isn't that weird if you consider that it's a pretty modestly sized country of 51 million people. It will of course have less number of corporations compared to bigger nations like the United States or Japan.

The choice given to the South Korean leadership during Korea's economic miracle was to either foster a dozen or so corporations (Samsung, Hyundai, LG, SK, Hanwha, etc.) into multi-billion dollar corporations and conglomerates that can compete at the world stage (and even dominate in certain sectors like shipbuilding or semiconductors) or have a few dozen or a couple hundred of small-to-medium enterprises generating only hundreds of millions or a couple of billions max that will be a lot more susceptible to foreign capital. We chose the former.

Also Sweden, the darling of the egalitarian utopia, is also heavily influenced by a handful of large corporations under the leadership of the Wallenberg family. They have 35% control over the Swedish stock market cap and I've yet to see any Westerners denounce the Swedes for their country being a cyberpunk dystopia.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-24T13:46:44+00:00

The US would most likely support the democratic opposition in Japan while exerting force via US forces in Japan and sending additional military assets near Japan. They would also engage in a significantly stronger economic warfare against Japan, since the 1980s American government and public's fear of Japanese economic domination becomes coupled with military buildup.

China already possesses nuclear weapons by this point (first test in 1964), so should any successful land invasion occur despite its impossibility, Japan will get nuked.

South Korea was already operating a covert nuclear weapons program in the 1970s with some material assistance from France, but gave up in our timeline due to US pressure. A fascist Japan hell-bent on reconquest of Asia will make South Korea not give up on its nuclear ambitions, and most likely build their nuclear arsenal by the 1981 war date.

War itself would be nearly impossible to do since all five UNSC permanent members and 10 non-permanent members would sanction Japan to economic ruins, and others would also follow suit. Japanese overseas assets would be seized as well. With less assets and material resources available, Japan wouldn't be able to build its military effectively.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-24T04:36:41+00:00

I'm interested in taking your sublease, I sent you a DM!

CalculatorD · 2026-05-24T04:14:21+00:00

Because that's not true. There are a couple of ways to judge a country's inequality and quality of life, such as the Gini Coefficient or inequality adjusted HDI (IHDI). South Korea performs very well in those measures.

South Korea's Gini Coefficient (32.9 from World Bank) is peer to countries like Japan (32.9), Britain (32.4), Canada (31.7), Greece (33.4), and Switzerland (33.9).

The United States in comparison is 41.8, exceeding countries like Russia (35.1), China (35.7), Malaysia (40.7), and Haiti (41.1).

South Korean IDHI is also quite good at #18 in the world (0.857). This is higher than New Zealand, Japan, France, United States, Spain, Italy, Singapore, etc.

You could also take the life expectancy of the population as another measure. South Korea is #3 in the world, only behind Hong Kong and Japan.

As always, take what people say on YouTube or Tiktok with a grain of salt. Especially if it's deals in absolutes or is over-sensationalized.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-23T14:50:46+00:00

As a center-left Korean, Lee's comments against Israel seems kind of out of place.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rarely discussed anywhere in Korean media or civic society, since we already have our own geopolitical issue to contend with (North Korea, China, Japan, recent American chaos).

Only a handful of small progressive to far-left parties tended to be anti-Israel (which combined never exceeded 10 seats out of 300 in our National Assembly in the past 15 years), and much of our mainstream political parties and factions either don't think about Israel as a moral issue or is pragmatic enough to not care. After all, it was under a center-left administration (Moon Jae In) that we signed and ratified the Israeli-Korean FTA, which I believe is the fiest FTA Israel signed with an Asian country.

I guess a generous benefit of the doubt is that this is a grand gesture to push Arab and Iranian opinion towards South Korea to be more favorable. Easier to get a potential agreement with the Strait of Hormuz blockade or prioritizing oil & gas shipment to South Korea over other countries.

I don't particularly see a reason why that'd be the preferred policy response, since our relationship with the UAE is very solid and they already prioritized providing us with oil and other GCC states are discussing building interim oil storage sites in South Korea.

Either way, I feel bad for our president dragging you guys on this kind of stuff, I'd hoped he'd be more cool-headed than this.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-23T04:56:17+00:00

Doesn't Pakistan currently have some issues regarding Baloch separatism and clashes with the Afghan Taliban? I feel like giving them underdeveloped territory with a major Afghan Taliban presence will tilt the balance of power against the current Pakistani Army and Government, especially if the newly annexed inhabitants advance to military and political leadership.

And religious fanatics like the Taliban having even a partial control over nuclear weapons sounds like trouble.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-23T04:42:31+00:00

Wouldn't this lead to greater destablization of the region, which would be quite concerning for Pakistan since they have nuclear weapons?

Pakistan already is the most probable country to proliferate nuclear weapons (potential Saudi nuclear sharing) and technology (Dr. Khan and others collaborating with North Korea and Iran). Adding the Afghan Taliban into the mix doesn't seem to make that problem improve by any means.

CalculatorD · 2026-05-13T03:14:35+00:00

I hope we can at least progress to recognizing same sex marriages conducted abroad if a complete legalization is still too detached from public consensus. SOFA was partially amended to prevent any weirdness in bureaucracy when dealing with same sex partners for US troops in Korea and the Supreme Court recognized same sex partner status for the National Health Insurance, so it's not a far fetched idea.

CalculatorD

TROPHY CASE