Korean Job Discussion Forums

[billybrobby]

[bogey666]

[billybrobby]

[loose_ends]

OP is dead wrong.

Anyone, from anywhere, spending money, IS contributing to that economy. PERIOD.

To assume that the only way to contribute to an economy is to bring in foreign investment is not only retarded, but lacks complete common sense. The global economy grows on a daily basis. Where is the money coming from? Aliens?

OP needs to check his attitude at the door as well.

[Rumple]

[Rumple]

[skeeterses]

Rumple,

I think you're misunderstanding economics a little bit and are assuming that all the ESL teachers are merely doing each other's laundry.

If everyone made money by simply doing each other's laundry or cooking meals for each other, it would be a banana republic economy. But Korea does make good products that are very competitive on the export market. But aside from making widgets, an economy does need service workers. In this world, there is always going to be a need for doctors, firefighters, plumbers, and yes Teachers. Division of labor is necessary for an economy to work. While not everyone can be a teacher, it is even more true that even fewer people would be able to fix their own cars.

If everybody was working at a hamburger stand or a laundromat, then you would be right in saying that a service economy doesn't create wealth. After all, anybody can do his/her laundry and cook hamburgers. America's economy with its Walmarts, Big Box Stores, and Fast Food restaurants, and crumbling education and healthcare systems, would make a good case for how a Service Economy can actually drain wealth from a nation. In a lot of other countries like Japan and Europe, the economies have a very good service economy(i.e good healthcare and good educational systems) balanced by a competitive export sector.

[billybrobby]

[endo]

[Temporary]

UGH..

I studied economics thats my degree.

John Maynard Keynes: Debt is good

Keynesian economics stupidist IDEA ever..

[asylum seeker]

I think some of you are missing the OPs main point.. Money coming in from overseas into a country's economy is a good thing. That's why countries try so hard to encourage direct foreign investment and exports. A country wants to have a net trade surplus with other countries otherwise they will eventually get more and more in debt to other countries.
However when NTs come to Korea they bring almost no money with them and instead tend to send home about half their monthly salaries or use those salaries for travel in other countries. That means that for every NT employed in Korea there is an outflow of money from Korea to the tune of about $10-15 000 per year.
The money you spend in Korea was money that you earned in Korea so this does not equal an inflow into the country's economy as that money was already in the country.
This is pretty clear and unequivocal if you think about it- a NT working in Korea does equal a net outflow of money from the Korean economy into other countries' economies and in terms of current account balances this is not exactly a positive thing.
However, as others have pointed out there are possible significant benefits of having an English-skilled workforce that will, in the long term, (hopefully for them ) offset this short-term loss.
Also in the case of NTs from the US Korea already has such a large trade surplus with the US due to its exports that the NTs' 'remittances' from Korea would be insignificant by comparison.

[billybrobby]

[RJjr]

I think the biggest factor on whether or not we help or hurt the Korean economy comes down to what kind of return Koreans are getting on their investment in foreign teachers.

Mexican laborers in the United States send a lot of money home to Mexico, but they get paid so little and produce so much. I feel like Mexicans have been great for the American economy.

In contrast, Koreans pay us sums of money that are fairly high, but they're not getting much for their money. Then, most of us send the money to bank acounts outside of Korea. It's almost as if they would do almost as well if they would cut out the middleman and just wire the money to our bank accounts in our countries without even bringing us over to teach. I feel like we're almost that big of a drain on the Korean economy. That being said, it's not our fault. They create the demand and we're just doing the jobs they ask us and pay us to do.

[jkelly80]

Isn't the whole push for foreign investment just mercantilism dressed up for the modern age? I thought that was pretty much repudiated right around Napoleon's time.

[Suwon23]

Try a little experiment. Quick, everyone in America, stop buying things. Done? Good, now look at what you've just done to the economy. Sucks pretty bad, doesn't it? Why do economists start shi77ing themselves when consumers stop buying Christmas presents for their kids? the money's still there in the bank, it's just not moving, and that's bad.

So, if foreigners provide an incentive for Koreans to spend money (especially if it raises their children's productivity later), that's good.