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Kia Introduces Its Cheapest EV in South Korea as Price War Rages

It’s already being embraced. More than 6,000 customers pre-ordered the cars in the past 20 business days since Kia said it was coming, surpassing its own goal of 4,000 for all of 2023, Kia says.

The single-seat version can be bought for about 27 million won ($20,500). It’s even less expensive in Seoul, where subsidies would cut the cost to $16,000. The four-seat model is priced slightly higher, going for as much as 29.55 million won.

Kia is joining the competition for cheaper clean cars as inflation and higher interest rates hurt consumer sentiment. An increasing number of startups have introduced cheaper EVs and electric trucks in the country, threatening Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia – which hold 80% the market share at home. Korean consumers can also purchase Chinese EVs by ordering them online and paying taxes, another less expensive option.

EK: Sounds like a promotion but the timing and consumer needs were about right, unlike the case of Tata Nano. Monopoly to be overthrown? Perhaps not, but still a promising change in the market.

Nearly Half of All Young Adults Live With Mom and Dad — and They Like It

Moving out and living on your own is often seen as a marker of adulthood. But dealt an onerous set of cards — including pandemic lockdowns, decades-high inflation, soaring student debt levels and a shaky job market — young people today are increasingly staying put. What’s more, it’s no longer seen as a sign of individual failure.

Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 drove the share of young adults living with parents or grandparents to nearly 50%, a record high. These days, about 23 million, or 45%, of all Americans ages 18 to 29 are living with family, roughly the same level as the 1940s, a time when women were more likely to remain at home until marriage and men too were lingering on family farms in the aftermath of the Great Depression.

Millennials who graduated into the 2008 financial crisis had also questioned their ability to be independent, with many temporarily living with their parents before getting back on track. The majority of millennials are now homeowners themselves. But for Gen Z, it’s unclear if they too are experiencing a delayed milestone or if a broader swath of the generation is getting left behind.

A trend toward financial nihilism is also impacting the way younger generations work, invest, spend, and choose to live, said Jason Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics. Look no further than the wave of young people saying no to college, quiet quitting, and accepting that living at home with mom and dad is the new normal.

EK: Good to be home, for now. They will catch up eventually. It could be just a phase as long as the economy improves.

India Issues Warning to Expats in Canada After Murder Accusation

India is the number one source of immigrants and foreign students to Canada, and the two countries have strong economic and investment ties. But they are now publicly sparring after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of orchestrating the assassination of a prominent Sikh separatist leader.

India denied the allegation, and hit back with a warning to all Indian nationals living in Canada or planning travels “in view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada.”

If Indians heed the message, Canada’s economy could suffer. Visitors from the country are also a major source of tourism dollars and represent nearly a quarter of spending by non-residents.

EK: National tensions and immigration – xenophobia is an issue anywhere, even in countries that have been historically very open to high-skilled immigration including the US and Canada. Immigrants have been a primary source of innovations, which they need to remember, though. Anti-Chinese, Anti-Indian, who next?

Ultra-Rich Buy Ultra-Luxury Counseling to Get Kids Into Harvard

Sooner or later, every parent asks Christopher Rim the same question: What will it take to get my kid into Harvard or Yale?

His answer: $750,000.

The backdrop for all of this, of course, is the age-old anxiety about getting into an elite school. The college application process has gotten even murkier in recent years, as acceptance rates plummet and parents search for anything that can give their kids an advantage. And even as millions struggle with student debt, and debate grows about the cost of going to college, being accepted at an Ivy (or a handful of other top-tier universities) remains an important status symbol for wealthy students and their families.

How crazy has this gotten? Rim said a parent at New York’s Trinity School — a $64,000-a-year Ivy League-feeder — once offered him $1.5 million if he would agree not to work with any of his child’s classmates (Rim declined).

As over-the-top as that might sound, the fact is, if you want to go to a prestigious university, being rich helps. A study released in July by a group of economists at Harvard found that children from families in the top 1% — an overwhelmingly White cohort — were 43% more likely to be admitted than students from the middle class, and those from the top 0.1% were more than twice as likely to get in.

Some high-end consultants have heard concerns from alumni parents about attacks on legacy admissions, which have ramped up recently. Critics call it “affirmative action for the rich” — a cutting rebuke now that the US Supreme Court has gutted race-conscious admissions programs at colleges across the country. And so, as summer fades and the annual application season begins — early-decision applications are often due November 1 — the admissions industrial complex is kicking into gear once more.

Leelila Strogov, an MIT graduate and chief executive officer of AtomicMind, a college consulting firm in Manhattan, characterizes her market as “the billionaire set” whose kids sometimes require tough love to put in the work necessary to get into an Ivy League school. While ultra-wealthy families that can make a sizable donation still have an advantage in the admissions game, Strogov said the odds are stacked against “regular rich” applicants who must distinguish themselves from high-achieving peers.

The company also specializes in “positioning” students of Asian descent. That includes steering an East Asian student, who now attends Columbia, away from competitive STEM fields towards a humanities major to boost the student’s chances of admission. (This cohort was at the center of the recent Supreme Court cases, in which the plaintiffs argued that high-achieving Asian American applicants lost out to less qualified students.)

EK: Rim sounds Korean. Do Americans buy into the crazy rich Asians’ college prep programs? Or is it just the universal culture of education for elites?