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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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 Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
I thought what Park Geun-Hye said after victory was interesting.
"I will start an era of happiness in the nation."
You'd never hear a politician in the West say that. It would be "I will increase minimum wage, lower unemployment, lower taxes" with the assumption perhaps that happiness would thereby increase. But a Westerner would never say "I will increase national happiness during my term". |
You do know that Koreans don't think realistically in any political spectrum, left or right. This is what happens when ideological struggles go too far.
One of the biggest flaws/fallacies that most Westerners makes on South Korean politics is this: Koreans respect realpolitik. |
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alwaysbeclosing100
Joined: 07 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
I thought what Park Geun-Hye said after victory was interesting.
"I will start an era of happiness in the nation."
You'd never hear a politician in the West say that. It would be "I will increase minimum wage, lower unemployment, lower taxes" with the assumption perhaps that happiness would thereby increase. But a Westerner would never say "I will increase national happiness during my term". |
Her statement is oh so Korean. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| NohopeSeriously wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
I thought what Park Geun-Hye said after victory was interesting.
"I will start an era of happiness in the nation."
You'd never hear a politician in the West say that. It would be "I will increase minimum wage, lower unemployment, lower taxes" with the assumption perhaps that happiness would thereby increase. But a Westerner would never say "I will increase national happiness during my term". |
You do know that Koreans don't think realistically in any political spectrum, left or right. This is what happens when ideological struggles go too far.
One of the biggest flaws/fallacies that most Westerners makes on South Korean politics is this: Koreans respect realpolitik. |
^ Sorry I don't actually know what any of this means, I just thought it interesting. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| saram_ wrote: |
Seoul and Gyeongi-do including Incheon have voted Moon Jae-in but Busan and Daegu and most of the southern parts (except Gwangju- where Moon was born) have voted Park Geun-Hye.
Busan was like 93% in Park's favor.
What does that say? |
Some nit-picking here. Actually Moon was born in Geoje, not that far from Busan...
continue with your fascinating debate... |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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I don't see why SK can't afford a bigger social safety net for its citizens, as some have posted. SK is by no means a poor country or in danger of becoming one.
As for better working conditions for women, that's pretty much a given due to demographics. Women in the workforce are a necessity.
It is, IMO, not a good thing when the old have a stranglehold on politics. |
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Who's Your Daddy?
Joined: 30 May 2010
Location: Victoria, Canada.
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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| John Stamos jr. wrote: |
| ...I'm not sure if it was an SBS thing, but they had cartoons with the candidates heads on them running everywhere; through cartoon Indiana Jones sets, had some batman themed stuff as they were showing the counts, and a bunch of other ridiculous cartoon crap for nearly an hour... |
Yeah, I thought it was disrespectful to both candidates and to the presidency. |
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saram_
Joined: 13 May 2008
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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| jvalmer wrote: |
| saram_ wrote: |
Seoul and Gyeongi-do including Incheon have voted Moon Jae-in but Busan and Daegu and most of the southern parts (except Gwangju- where Moon was born) have voted Park Geun-Hye.
Busan was like 93% in Park's favor.
What does that say? |
Some nit-picking here. Actually Moon was born in Geoje, not that far from Busan...
continue with your fascinating debate... |
Ah ok. You are indeed correct.
I was looking at the election results as they were coming in quite quickly and noticed Gwangju gave a much larger percentage of their votes to Moon Jae-in than most other southern areas.
I had this idea in my head that was where he was born but...
I guess the real reason Gwangju has voted in favor of Moon Jae-in was due to the massacre that occured in Gwangju in 1980 during Park Geun-Hye's father reign of military.
Seems like most people under 40 in Korea are a little upset about Park becoming president. It's like a return to the old ways for many people.
Yeah- she is a woman and that's good on the surface but time will tell if she can bring any change at all.
The worry is her strong support for Chaebols and her hard line on NK..
It ll be interesting to see how she will do. Somebody will have to stand up more to the Chaebols. They are destroying Korea at the moment. |
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tiger fancini
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Location: Testicles for Eyes
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| dairyairy wrote: |
| tiger fancini wrote: |
| dairyairy wrote: |
| I don't see her and her crowd taking any crap from the North or from protesters in Seoul. |
I hope she doesn't. One of my biggest disappointments with LMB was how restrained he was when dealing with such crap. He talked the talk, don't-mess-with-us-or-you'll-be-sorry, but his responses in dealing with the North post-killing of South Korean citizens were far too muted in my opinion. |
Didn't you get the feeling that LMB was always more focused on finances and money? That was his background and area of expertise. Park should be more focused on foreign policy. The first time she gets that 3 am wake up call that something has happened involving the North should be very interesting. |
The economy was the most important thing for him, absolutely. Once the North got wind of this, it realised that it could do pretty much whatever it liked because LMB was not prepared to risk the economy on confrontation with them. To an extent I can understand his actions, but the families and friends of the victims of the North's aggression must be pretty annoyed with him. How many times did he effectively say, "Any provocation, or further provocation, will result in serious consequences?" How many provocations were there? And did anybody actually see the promised serious consequences? |
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Otherside
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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| saram_ wrote: |
Seoul and Gyeongi-do including Incheon have voted Moon Jae-in but Busan and Daegu and most of the southern parts (except Gwangju- where Moon was born) have voted Park Geun-Hye.
Busan was like 93% in Park's favor.
What does that say?
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That says that your stats couldn't be more wrong if you tried!
Park won Busan with 60%,
She won Incheon and Gyeonggi.
The Southern Parts (North and South Jeolla) voted Moon by landslide amounts 85%, in addition to Gwangju, which Moon got 93%.
Last edited by Otherside on Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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NQ
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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| saram_ wrote: |
| jvalmer wrote: |
| saram_ wrote: |
Seoul and Gyeongi-do including Incheon have voted Moon Jae-in but Busan and Daegu and most of the southern parts (except Gwangju- where Moon was born) have voted Park Geun-Hye.
Busan was like 93% in Park's favor.
What does that say? |
Some nit-picking here. Actually Moon was born in Geoje, not that far from Busan...
continue with your fascinating debate... |
Seems like most people under 40 in Korea are a little upset about Park becoming president. It's like a return to the old ways for many people.
Yeah- she is a woman and that's good on the surface but time will tell if she can bring any change at all.
The worry is her strong support for Chaebols and her hard line on NK..
It ll be interesting to see how she will do. Somebody will have to stand up more to the Chaebols. They are destroying Korea at the moment. |
Who are the Chaebols exactly and how are they destroying Korea? I'm really loving this thread BTW. |
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Otherside
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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| NQ wrote: |
| saram_ wrote: |
| jvalmer wrote: |
| saram_ wrote: |
Seoul and Gyeongi-do including Incheon have voted Moon Jae-in but Busan and Daegu and most of the southern parts (except Gwangju- where Moon was born) have voted Park Geun-Hye.
Busan was like 93% in Park's favor.
What does that say? |
Some nit-picking here. Actually Moon was born in Geoje, not that far from Busan...
continue with your fascinating debate... |
Seems like most people under 40 in Korea are a little upset about Park becoming president. It's like a return to the old ways for many people.
Yeah- she is a woman and that's good on the surface but time will tell if she can bring any change at all.
The worry is her strong support for Chaebols and her hard line on NK..
It ll be interesting to see how she will do. Somebody will have to stand up more to the Chaebols. They are destroying Korea at the moment. |
Who are the Chaebols exactly and how are they destroying Korea? I'm really loving this thread BTW. |
The Chaebols are the big multinational conglomerates. LG, Samsung and Hyundai are the most well known. |
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NQ
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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Ah okay.
So how are these companies destroying Korea? Don't they provide lots of jobs for folks? Or is it because they discourage competition. |
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Otherside
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:22 pm Post subject: |
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They don't provide that many jobs actually. I read figures that said they provide 5% of the jobs but contribute half of the GDP. They kill competition, kill the mom and pop stores. Literally every franchise you see is owned by a Chaebol, they even have stakes in major Western brands operating in Korea (for example Starbucks Korea is a 50/50 joint venture with Shinsagae, which is part of the Samsung broader group).
Lastly, they use a circular cross-holding structure (or a pyramid structure in some cases). This allows people to exert effective control over the companies and the group at large even though they own a relatively small stake. This makes it bad for investors, and makes internal change near-impossible.
For example. I own 51% of A, A owns 51% of B, B owns 51% of C, and C own 51% of D. Through my 51% share of A, I exert effective control on all 4 companies, yet my stake in D, is around 6%
Here is an article on the issue. It's not the best I've read, but it covers most of the key points.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20752804 |
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NQ
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Otherside wrote: |
They don't provide that many jobs actually. I read figures that said they provide 5% of the jobs but contribute half of the GDP. They kill competition, kill the mom and pop stores. Literally every franchise you see is owned by a Chaebol, they even have stakes in major Western brands operating in Korea (for example Starbucks Korea is a 50/50 joint venture with Shinsagae, which is part of the Samsung broader group).
Lastly, they use a circular cross-holding structure (or a pyramid structure in some cases). This allows people to exert effective control over the companies and the group at large even though they own a relatively small stake. This makes it bad for investors, and makes internal change near-impossible.
For example. I own 51% of A, A owns 51% of B, B owns 51% of C, an
d C own 51% of D. Through my 51% share of A, I exert effective control on all 4 companies, yet my stake in D, is around 6%
Here is an article on the issue. It's not the best I've read, but it covers most of the key points.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20752804 |
Actually, Samsung contributes to 20% of S. Korea's GDP according to this article>
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-09/world/35721716_1_samsung-chairman-smartphone-market-samsung-credit-card
I guess it's still pretty high though. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Otherside wrote: |
| They don't provide that many jobs actually. I read figures that said they provide 5% of the jobs but contribute half of the GDP. They kill competition, kill the mom and pop stores. Literally every franchise you see is owned by a Chaebol, they even have stakes in major Western brands operating in Korea (for example Starbucks Korea is a 50/50 joint venture with Shinsagae, which is part of the Samsung broader group). |
If you like shopping in the small markets, please continue to do so. I'll happily shop at the larger chains.
You blame the conglomerates for the dying Mom and Pop stores, I blame their shitty product line, bad sanitation, and irregular customer service. |
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