Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ChopChaeJoe]

Going to Scandanavia and living on the dole has always been one of my dreams. Why i haven't done it is beyond me. Perhaps I'm uninformed as how to do this.

[Son Deureo!]

Well Dude Love, to be honest most capitalist countries aren't offering free plane tickets and apartments plus a living wage to random yahoos with BAs, so I think the fairer question is "why is South Korea so desperate to have us?"

When I made the decision to come here, I couldn't really afford to travel to ANY other country aside from the occasional day trip to Canada. The free plane ticket was an unusual opportunity. I'd have probably accepted that ticket, job, and apartment if it had been just about anyplace outside of the polar circles. I wasn't in crushing poverty, but I did feel trapped and bored to tears.

I don't know who these snobby socialists that you know are who don't worry about money, but I've always asked how much I'll be paid before I take a job and check how much things cost before I buy them. Marx himself understood full well that human beings are trying to fulfill unlimited desires with limited resources.

I can't pretend to speak for anyone other than myself when I say that I wanted to teach EFL abroad out of a desire to try to do something different with a part of my life, and I chose Korea in particular because the free plane ticket and free apartment made it seem like a low risk way to do that. I decided to stay because I like a lot of things about Korea, the food, the language, the work, etc. The money is decent, too, and that makes it easier to stay. And believe me, I was never planning on staying for as long as I had when I came here. I just liked it.

Something tells me that you want to say something clever about the fact that socialists make decisions about their personal lives based on money. If so, so what? This won't come as a shock to anyone. Or did you have something more insightful to say on this matter?

[SPINOZA]

[Dude Love]

Thanks, Son. I think South Korea's desperate to have people like us because they want to learn English very badly. You mentioned Marx. He was the one who said communism would eventually replace capitalism, right? And you're right, it shocks me that people who consider themselves socialists (as opposed to socialists) make their decisions based on money.
Spinoza, who owned me? Would you by any chance be referring to a name-caller (like you?) who was also a pathological liar with illusions of grandeur who dropped out of the discussion (possibly because he couldn't match wits with us)? Maybe you feel solidarity with him because you're also inclined to call people names and make personal attacks and ask irrelevant questions.
To tell you the truth, I still don't know why socialists and communists don't move to countries with the forms of government they claim to support. I've heard a few valid reasons for moving to Korea but find it's strange that a communist/socialist would find everything they need in a staunchly anti-communist country like Korea.
Why do staunch free market libertarians live in Canada and Germnay? I don't know about Germnay. I'm not sure about Canada either, because I'm not a staunch free market liberrtarian (I actually never said what my politics were). But I did leave Canada for the time being because I wasn't happy with the Liberal government that was in power when I was there. See, when I support a form of government, I'm happy to live under it. And, for better or worse, many people are indeed leaving Canada because of high taxes and social spending. But that might soon change, because Canadians elected a Conservative Prime Minister in the last federal elections.
As for Catholics living in England, a Catholic can live according to Catholic principles in any country in the world that affords religious freedom. That would discount communist countries but there are Catholics there, too. I'm sure they'd leave if they had the right to.
I don't know why people who supported abolitionism chose to live in slave states. Slavery's such a serious moral offense that if my state practiced it I'd leave. That's because I'm not a hypocrite. If I support a form of government, I'm happy to be governed by it. If I don't support a form of government, I won't live under it if I have the choice. I'm just curious why those who consider themselves socialists and communists don't do the same, as opposed to doing the opposite and moving to South Korea.

[djsmnc]

Why do white people who think their opinions matter choose to live in Korea?

[Dude Love]

I never said I was white. Why is race an issue here? People go to Korea for a variety fo reasons.

[djsmnc]

I wasn't mentioning you specifically. I meant in general.

It seems like a lot of white people with opinions come here and expect people to care. However, it's KOREA!

[Son Deureo!]

[Dude Love]

djsmnc, why do you specify white people?

[sock]

Ah, the master debater, Dude Love. Let me guess: your university major wasn't government, political science, sociology, economics, or history, was it? Let's examine the beacons of brilliance that have burst forth from your shining temples of wisdom and omniscience:

[sock]

[Dude Love]

Sock, that's twice now you've said you were leaving the thread and have come back. You might be or have been a supposed socialist/communist in democratic and capitalist South Korea by your own free will but it's never too late to become consistent.
To answer some of your questions, I assumed you were in Korea teaching English because you're following a recent thread on a Korean ESL website. In fact, I still think you're an English teacher here and don't believe for a second that you're a psychologist or that people pay you for advice.
You seem to know a lot more about communism than I do. It's because I've little interest in studying a form of government that hasn't ever worked in eighty years. I don't think Marx, someone who died in poverty, is the right person to consult on economic matters. And I did look it up and I believe he did indeed claim that communism would replace capitalism.
I never claimed to have presented an idea. I was asking a question. In fact, the replies on this board are confirming what I already thought the answer was. Why do those who claim to believe in socialism/communism come to South Korea of all places? It's because they don't really believe in either and/or they think such principles should apply to everybody except them.
Why's it a question of victory/defeat? When did I claim vistory? Again, I was asking a question. I just think if people really believed in socialism/communism they'd live under it. If they choose not to, it can only be because they don't really believe in it or they don't think it's working anywhere in the world.
Would you care to tell us why there are no purely socialist governments in the world right now? Is it because it hasn't ever worked? Oh, sorry. You're not following the thread anymore. What's wrong with giving up your citizenship and settling in a communist country if you believe in communism? Because you wouldn't be able to travel? Ok, another strike against communism.
Sadly, slavery is indeed practiced in many places in the world. Thanks for warning me about travelling back in time.
Fair enough, probably no one in the world agrees with every single decision their government has made. It just seems inconsistent that a communist would move to a staunchly anti-communist country and that a socialist would move to such a strong capitalist economy.
No one demanded that you defend your beliefs nor did it make sense to state that I was the only one responding to this thread when you were the last one to post and before that it was djsmnc and two posts earlier it was Spinoza. I never claimed to have won anything.

[ernie]

i have a question for all you capitalists out there: why do YOU choose to live in countries with socialist structures, e.g. public hospitals, public police services, public water maintenance, public washrooms, when those institutions contradict EVERYTHING you stand for?

[Dude Love]

I'll be sure to ask capitalists if and when I meet any. Even though this should be in another thread and you haven't answered my question, I'll do my best to answer yours (if I was the one being addressed): Those institutions don't contradict EVERYTHING capitalists stand for. But supposing I was a capitalist, I wouldn't go to a staunchly anti-capitalist country to work (unlike supposed socialists and communists who find their best opportunties in staunchly democratic, capitalist south Korea).

[luvnpeas]

I don't think any countries in the world today are very pure examples of any political philosophy. The US is not, and never has been, a free-market economy. Most of the socialist/communist countries familiar to me are extremely distorted versions of the original vision, to the point that the vision is just a propaganda tool for fascists.

Remarks like "If you don't like it, why don't you move...." are so thoughtless, it's hard to believe they are meant as anything but a sneer. First, people have motives for living in a place aside from political philsophy, like where their home is. Second, you usually can't just decide "I like France better, I'll go there and be French." France won't let you, any more than the US will let Mexicans do that (funny, it is often the anti-immigration crowd that thinks immigrating to other countries is so easy). Even in the rare cases when the immigration you are describing is legal and personally appropriate, there is the basic problem of earning a living. The stepping-stones of careers are mostly meaningful in the country where they occur.

I despise communism. I would be very interested in living in Cuba and teaching English. It would be a fascinating experience. You do realize the US can arrest you just for visiting Cuba, right?