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<P>In connection with this interesting discussion I have a question: Has anyone worked about the social security system in S-K? A friend gave me incredible numbers: 800.000/m for a single unemployed, and double for a single unemplyed mother. He added that also material help (clothing, free meals at centers for the elderly, free rice allowance of sorts, money for (additional) schooling) is available.</P>
<P>I was so amazed that I decided to do some research about this topic, which, however, I can only start towards the end of the year. But maybe someone already has worked about it?<BR></P>
<P>Greetings, Werner Sasse<BR></P></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>From: <I>Brother Anthony <ansonjae@sogang.ac.kr></I><BR>Reply-To: <I>ansonjae@sogang.ac.kr,Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws></I><BR>To: <I>Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws></I><BR>Subject: <I>Re: [KS] How unequal is South Korea, really? Almost perfectly unequal, in Seoul.</I><BR>Date: <I>Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:28:23 +0900</I><BR>>The land-ownership statistics at the end of the text quoted by Paul Shepherd are hair-raising. Yesterday my<BR>>favorite Korean journalist was telling me that many people believe that the explosion in apartment-based<BR>>living promoted during the later 1980s, and the demolition of almost all the housing that people on minimal<BR>>incomes could afford (rented rooms with a shared toilet and tap), was a deliberate strategy
to oblige most<BR>>urban-dwellers (not only in Seoul) to accept such huge mortgage and loan burdens that they would only be<BR>>able to survive by working very hard and being careful not to compromise their income by strikes or union<BR>>militancy that might threaten social stability (and economic inequality). Everyone dreams of owning land<BR>>because that is seen as the only reliable form of wealth, and the 54% who do not are very aware that<BR>>certain people, often purely by chance and inheritance, own immense tracts.<BR>><BR>>Related to this issue is the following quotation from the Korea Times of August 20:<BR>><BR>>According to a report from the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI), the number of employees at the<BR>>top 30 conglomerates, state-owned firms and financial firms declined to 13 million in 2004 from 15.7<BR>>million in 1997,
affected by restructuring. Over the same period, the total number of employees in South<BR>>Korea increased by 13.4 million.<BR>><BR>>This means decent jobs offering high incomes and better opportunities for career development have fallen,<BR>>while the number of employees at small and mid-sized companies has risen for the past decade, the report said.<BR>><BR>>``South Korea has seen its total number of jobs increase since the Asian financial crisis thanks to<BR>>economic development, but there was little growth in terms of income,ĄŻĄŻ the KDI said. ``This is due to a<BR>>fall in the number of jobs at companies offering high incomes. The income disparity may widen further<BR>>unless the government takes proper counter-measures.ĄŻĄŻ<BR>><BR>>Add to this the disappearance of jobs for unskilled laborers in the industrial sector and the main
question<BR>>is how the poor survive at all. Students graduating from universities have a very hard time getting jobs,<BR>>and statistics suggest that a large proportion fail. This is mitigated by the dramatic drop in numbers<BR>>caused by the drop in the birthrate 25 years ago. Empty four-year-colleges and universities in the<BR>>provinces are busily laying off professors who have no one to teach.<BR>><BR>>No wonder so many people tried to get lucky gambling, until the latest scandal broke.<BR>><BR>>Br Anthony<BR>>Sogang University, Seoul, Korea<BR>>http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></div></html>