Why It Makes Zero Sense That Talent Won't Move to Regional Areas

 

1. Daedeok Research Complex

 

They built a science complex in Daejeon, which is basically this dead boring city,

 

and have been running it for decades now

 

Multiple master's and PhD holders gathered there and did solid research, turning it into a science hub

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. POSTECH

 

A private university in a provincial city with barely 500k people—

 

if you fund it properly,

 

top-tier master's and PhD students obviously flock there,

 

and even undergrads are on par with Seoul's elite universities (SKY-level talent)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Regional Science & Technology Universities

 

Even excluding KAIST (which is the top dog), the other three are so well-funded that they're on par with or above Seoul's top universities (Seo, Seongyeong, Hanyang, Ewha, etc.)

 

They produce tons of research seriously impressive stuff and nurture excellent talent

 

Even UNIST, a specialized school with literally one major, built in Naju—a city with 110k people—and talent from Seoul just came down naturally

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But then people make up all this garbage about the "employment boundary north of X line"

 

and whatever other useless excuses

 

Just to defend Seoul metro youth instead of being real about it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These days there's a ton of people spouting off that you can't attract talent unless you build industrial zones in Seoul metro areas, even if you have to pipe in water and electricity to make it happen—

 

That's just pure bullshit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, engineering grads look for jobs wherever they are,

 

and even Seoul's top students will travel south if that's where the work is

 

When you're hungry, you gotta eat—if the factories aren't in Seoul metro, why would someone who paid double tuition compared to others just stay unemployed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't get why people keep saying we can't attract talent if we don't build industrial zones in Seoul metro, which is only 11% of the entire country's land—basically nowhere near the border

 

Let people switch jobs if they want to—that's just people being picky when they're already satisfied

 

And provincial kids? If they're doing fine, they go back to their hometowns too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even if you don't build stuff in Seoul metro, talent will still get filled in—

 

either by people from the regions themselves

 

or by Seoul kids who went to regional universities

 

When money's not coming in today, there's no tomorrow—how long do you think you can survive like that?

 

In an era where just playing video games brings joy,

 

why are people obsessing over infrastructure for cultural activities they won't even use anyway?