Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

The KOSPI is at historical highs. The unemployment rate is low, low compared to western standards. The economy posts 4-5% growth every year since I've been here. Exports and current account figures keep growing. Samsung exceeds Sony in market cap. High oil prices makes Korean cars popular.

Surely there are problems on the horizon. The rise of China. But what modern economy doesn't always have future problems. That's the nature of economics. You always have to be looking ahead.

It just seems to me Koreans keep thinking about the '80s and '90s. The Asian tiger era. Rapid growth due to industrialization. Those days are over. Korea is a mature economy. Koreans have to deal with it. When was the last time the economies of western Europe or North America grew by 7-8% for 5 year stretches?

[eamo]

Which is why I'm appalled that Lee Myoung Park got in on a ticket of increasing economic growth. It's the last thing Korea needs. More construction. Less restrains on the chaebol. Great.

Korea is doing just fine economically. What they really needed was a government who will focus on quality of life measures and decreasing the gap between rich and poor. Controlling prices. Especially home prices and food........... Park's not the man for that. He's in the Park Chung Hee school of economics. The only thing that matters is world GNP ranking. Park has promised to bring Korea up to no. 7............. Whoopee.

[Octavius Hite]

You're right. There is nothing wrong with the current growth numbers or the economy. But Koreans are obsessed with the past and with numbers/ranking.

They long for the Park days because they view them with rose coloured glasses. For all the economic growth he (and his successors) brought the people have forgotten about all the people "disappeared", all the hands cut off, the involvement in Vietnam, the tension with NK (and the terrorism going both ways).

As for ranking (and the Korean obsession with it), it drives the Koreans crazy that they are no longer the 2nd biggest economy in Asia. Now they are behind Japan and China (and I suspect India, but it all depends on how you count these things) and that is maddening.

I have never seen a people (or a media) so obsessed with these things. What makes it worse is the fact that despite being a developed, growing, dynamic economy, they continue to slide in rankings because these other countries (Russia, India, Mexico, etc) are pulling themselves out of poverty and are thus enjoying rapid growth rates.

[Beej]

Economic statistics and indicators dont mean a thing if you cant find a job. Finding a job is very hard for many Koreans, especially the young. Salarymen are forced to retire at the low to mid forties, just when they need their income the most. This oversupply of labor keeps wages ridiculously low, especially vis a vis the cost of living here.
So no, I dont think Korea's economy is in good shape.

[idonojacs]

The last thing any country should engage in at this point, unless they are faced with the possibility of recession, is loosening monetary policies and artificially stimulating the economy.

The contraction of the American economy, combined with the bursting of the mortgage bubble, threatens to suck the economies of many nations into an economic black hole. It was artificial stimulation of the American economy by deficit spending and liberal credit policies that created this danger.

A conservative moentary policy with reasonably tight requirements for credit would help reduce the risk to Korea. Then, if the economy turned downward, they would have room to loosen monetary policy to stimulate the economy.

Also, when you artificially stimulate the economy when there is not significant unemployment, you risk triggering inflation, which once begun, is hard to stop. We can see in the stores price rises in a number of key commodities already. So this is another argument against fiscal stimulation.

Frankly, from what little I have heard about Lee Myoung Park's plans, it sounds like he could wreck the Korean economy.

On the face of it, electing a businessman sounds like a great idea. And a responsible businessman with a strong grounding in economic theory would be just the thing for the current perilous economic times. That's the theory.

But in America, the Republican Party, the party of business - big business - did anything but follow conservative fiscal policies.

If the mating of business and politics produces the same results in Korea as it did in the United States, I do not want to be around to witness it.

[Justin Hale]

I couldn't possibly agree more with Eamo, Octavius and Beej....but can Eamo kindly explain the following?

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

[crazy_arcade]

Housing bubble housing bubble housing bubble

Very high oil prices make the Korean economy less competitive

Korean cars continue to concentrate on bigger oil guzzling vehicles and are popular in countries of the noveau rich. Japanese carmakers are the real winners when it comes to the ever-increasing oil problem.

The economy continues to grow but university graduates can't find work.

[eamo]

[RACETRAITOR]

I think there are things more important than a good economy, like a reasonable cost of living and a comfortable quality of life. If everyone stopped working 16-hour days six days a week, and kids didn't have to study twice as much as that per day, they might drop a few rankings, but everyone would lead much more fulfilling lives.

[ernie]

having a president mired in a corruption scandal isn't the way to go... we can only assume that he'll continue lying and cooking the books to line his (and his friends') pockets... his logic is: my cunning (a great euphemism, IMO) has gotten me this far, why stop now?

having a group of oligarchs basically running the show here is not the way to go, either... as soon as the bubble bursts, they'll cut and run outta here with scads of cash and never look back...

being obsessed with GDP is a serious mistake... why they present this stat as an average instead of a MEDIAN is crystal clear to me - a few billionaires at the top can cancel out the majority of people who are struggling to get by, making things appear much better than they really are! follow flawed statistical methodology at your own peril...

[Milwaukiedave]

I agree Racetraitor, they need to try to reform the work system to a five day work week. It seems to be slowly catching on, but many companies have not gone that direction yet.

I think it's unrealistic to expect a 7% growth rate at this point. Yes, the stock market is doing well (my money market fund has doubled in 3 years) although the stock I own is all over the place).

Eventually the economy in China is going to take a nose dive because they are unwilling to keep a tighter control on growth. My feeling is that when it does happen, it will effect the other Asian nations. The key is whether or not is will cause a crisis or not. I'm not willing to speculate on that.

[Milwaukiedave]

[skeeterses]

On another website, www.economyincrisis.com , the commentators posted a good explanation as to why GDP growth numbers are misleading. Unfortunately, that website is only up at certain hours of the day.

Anyway, here's the explanation they posted.
A Dollar spent at a Blackjack Table, in a casino where money disappears like school candy, counts the same towards the GDP as a Dollar spent on schools or maintaining factories. And if a truck full of toxic waste spills, the money spent cleaning up the waste, covering people's medical bills, and buying bottled water due to the contaminated water, counts towards GDP as well. Of course, you and I know that isn't worthy to be called growth. But a greedy politician who's cooked books in the private sector will not hesitate to grow the economy on the backs of those who won't benefit.

I can only hope that Korea's Society values some things more than having more toys and bigger cars. For starters, Korea is a small country and has to use its resources more wisely than America has. It would be tragic if Korean Society were to cut down all its forests and flatten all its mountains in the name of growth. The Ecological consequences of doing that could have the effect of turning Korea into a Desert. Last year, I've been to a few lakes and have seen the water levels go down by a few meters.

With Global Warming taking place, Korea will be vulnerable to floods, as well as droughts. With the Perfect Storm of Peak Oil, Global Warming, and collapsing financial markets, the World's societies are going to have to prepare for a life with fewer toys, fewer cars, fewer TVs and computers, and fewer of the many things we all take for granted. Survival will be the name of the name, and we will not be able to mortgage our childrens' futures so that we can live a life of extravagence.

[ernie]

my point about mean vs. median is this:

scenario #1: 1000 people have $1000 each
mean=$1000
median=$1000

scenario #2: 1 person has $2 000 000, and 999 people have $0
mean=$2000
median=$0

in scenario #1, the 'average' person is clearly better off than in #2, even though the GDP of #2 is twice that of #1!!!

this is obviously an exaggeration, but it isn't really that far off in many countries like china... income stratification is a HUGE problem in the developing world, and unless we use statistics that actually reflect what we are trying to measure, we are in a lot of trouble! it is hard for me to be optimistic because, although MEDIAN GDP stats can obviously be made available, i've never seen any!