The South Korean system is so competitive that parents have stopped having children, because they know they cannot possibly afford to provide a future for more than one. I think it's down below 1.2 children per woman now. Spending every waking hour studying isn't enough to make it anymore unless you're exceptionally bright, so parents have to send their kids to expensive cram schools for the equivalent of five figures a year to help them study even harder. Men have it even worse because men under age 21 in SK are basically not permitted to crack or show any kind of strain under this pressure. Any signs of mental problems or any kind of outward show of weakness to their peers is a real problem, because they'll eventually have to do their military service with those peers. If they give their peers any cause to doubt their ability to keep calm under fire they'll get discharged which basically amounts to permanent exile from SK society. Performing your service successfully is viewed as more important than your life in SK and you can't fail at it.
Germany is nowhere near that hardcore but it basically amounts to the government deciding what your profession is going to be for you. The job market in Germany is extremely regimented, most higher level positions absolutely require a specific degree from a list of approved universities and there is no getting around this requirement. A $200 million/year US CEO could go to Germany and wouldn't be able to get a $75k management job because they don't have the right degree. The government has statistics that show that kids that score X-Y on Z test are most likely to perform best at ABC professions so when you get done with grade school you take the test and they assign you to a school based on those criteria. The school you end up in determines whether or not you can attend university at all, because the universities pretty much only accept applicants from certain high schools. So if you fuck that test up you can't go to college, which means the higher level jobs are permanently closed off. You could theoretically pay for college yourself in Germany but the tax rate is so high there that's basically impossible for someone working a blue collar degree-less job to ever afford.
