Korea Briefing, 1990 by Chong-Sik Lee

Author:Chong-Sik Lee [Lee, Chong-Sik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, World, Asian, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429722370
Google: gCuNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-03-04T10:32:22+00:00

The Poor, Inequality, and Economic Injustice

Absolute poverty rates (the incidence of families with income below a certain fixed amount) have declined sharply with economic growth, from 23.4 percent in 1970, to 9.8 percent in 1980, to only 5.5 percent (or 2.3 million people in poverty) in 1988. The rates are roughly equal in rural and urban areas. People in this category, which comprises mainly the old, the sick, those with other disabilities, families without a male head of household, and in rural areas those without land, receive minimal “survival assistance” from the government. In terms of relative poverty, however, the Korea Development Institute (the most influential, government-funded, economic think tank) has estimated that between 20 and 30 percent of the population is unable to maintain a minimal, decent standard of living. (Households that spend less than 60 percent of the average urban household expenditure are considered to be in relative poverty.) Female-headed households make up 31 percent of poor households, and unemployment rates in such households are much higher than for the population as a whole. What employment there is tends to be as unskilled manual labor or in the lowest-paid factory jobs. According to a 1978 survey conducted by Seoul National University sociologist Hong Doo Seung, poor people did not at that time usually blame the system, believing either that they were unlucky or that they were personally responsible for their misfortune. After a decade of increasingly intense attacks on the political and economic structure by radical students and the media, however, attitudes may have changed. In any case throughout Korean society there is much greater concern for the poor than in the past, and President Roh’s government is investing large amounts in more substantial welfare programs and low-income housing projects.

It appears that in contemporary South Korea concepts of social and economic justice as expressions of a more basic egalitarian ideal have become a pervasive part of popular culture. This is a reflection of the radicalization of political opposition to the establishment that occurred during the 1980s. A widely felt sense of relative deprivation is now a powerful social force for structural change. Although the interpretation of statistics on the distribution of wealth is difficult and controversial, most economists believe that, after a period of increasing inequality during the early 1980s, the situation is improving. But regardless of economic facts the social-psychological reality, or popular perception, is that the distribution of wealth is badly skewed and unjust. It is as if the frustration and resentment generated during 26 years of political repression were now being expressed, not just in the form of opposition to authority, but also in the form of extreme sensitivity to what is regarded as the unfair allocation of rewards.

Teachers resent the high wages paid to skilled industrial workers, whose educational qualifications are much lower than theirs. Workers in labor-intensive, low-tech industries resent the higher wages paid to those in the modern, capital-intensive sector. Women resent the higher wages paid to men for the same work, and blue-collar workers resent the higher white-collar salaries.

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