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shawner88

Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:23 pm Post subject: Street Vendor Crackdown |
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Anyone else notice the lack of street vendors lately? I saw in the paper some ajummas protesting in Uijeongbu, but also here in Songnae there all gone with just a few exceptions lately. I miss the chicken on a stick outside of the station  |
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Pyongshin Sangja

Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: I love baby!
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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Good, my hometown is Seoul and they have brought disgrace to our town. |
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peemil

Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Location: Koowoompa
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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About bloody time... Round my place they put their little stalls up in no parking zones on a street that is narrow enough.
They'll tow cars that are there but not the ajuma stalls.
Hope to see less of them... |
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hellofaniceguy

Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: On your computer screen!
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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Pyongshin Sangja wrote: |
Good, my hometown is Seoul and they have brought disgrace to our town. |
Mine too!
I don't buy from street vendors out of principle....they pay no taxes, offer no guarantees and take away from the folks who are paying rent, taxes, etc. |
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JongnoGuru

Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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Not exactly the warm-hearted, caring responses you were expecting, eh Shawner?
I caught a few snippets of something on the news a night or two ago about some crackdown on pojangmatchas. I wasn't paying close attention, but I remember them saying the focus was outside of Seoul.
Yet another reason for you to leave the sticks -- and, apparently, a reason for the other posters to move there.  |
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Manner of Speaking

Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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Street vendors provide employment to hundreds of thousands of people, who might otherwise have difficulty finding jobs. They put people into the formal economy of developed and developing countries, and allow them to work their way out of poverty if they choose to do so.
In Canada, there are almost no street vendors because of asinine local municipal bylaws...but there ARE thousands of homeless people who can't find jobs or don't qualify for unemployment.
From an international development perspective, street vendors are great. |
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itaewonguy

Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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Manner of Speaking wrote: |
Street vendors provide employment to hundreds of thousands of people, who might otherwise have difficulty finding jobs. They put people into the formal economy of developed and developing countries, and allow them to work their way out of poverty if they choose to do so.
In Canada, there are almost no street vendors because of asinine local municipal bylaws...but there ARE thousands of homeless people who can't find jobs or don't qualify for unemployment.
From an international development perspective, street vendors are great. |
I agree totally here..
there is no social welfare here.. most of the street venders are old people
these days many being men who lost their jobs and cant get another job or just people who need work.. if they dont sell out of a truck they will starve.. of course there are people who are doing it just for the money!
becuase if you get that pojangmacha in hongdae or myungdong you will be taking home about 10-million a month! now thats money!!!
im sure gangstas are involved here..dont know if they run the businesses or they just tax the people.. I mean illegal! yeah right!! look at gangnam ST.. thats IN YOUR FACE!! both sides of the street are just lined back to back with vendors!! illegal??? whatever!!!
I have heard that venders are illegal ever since I got to korea!
guess the poor helpless ajuma is the one who gets kicked to the curb and told to move.. but the other guys who have gangsta support get ignored!
BS man!!
dog eat dog world... |
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Sage Monkey

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:02 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by Sage Monkey on Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:26 am; edited 2 times in total |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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Sage Monkey wrote: |
They're cracking down in my town as well. I agree with a previous poster about giving these people a chance to work their way out of poverty. Though, I also agree that these stalls obstruct sidewalks and roads all over the place. I don't understand why they don't just create a designated outdoor marketplace for the street vendors to congregate their stalls. They do this all over Europe and it is very effective. If there are concerns about these people not paying taxes, they should levy a small fee to place a stall in the designated market. |
They did that with Dongdaemoon stadium. All the vendors along the chunky canal project they moved to the stadium.
I don't mind the street vendors. Makes my walk interesting, seeing what they sell. Some choke points could be cleaned of vendors, mind you. But given the large numbers of people they employ, it might have some terrible ramifications on a society that doesn't have much of a social welfare system. Even most Koreans seem to see street vendors as a necessary evil. They're displaying gumption and self reliance. No matter what a pain they might be, at least they're not living on welfare.
And I'll take them over the squeegee kids and aggressive panhandles you see in Toronto any day. |
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hellofaniceguy

Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: On your computer screen!
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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itaewonguy wrote: |
Manner of Speaking wrote: |
Street vendors provide employment to hundreds of thousands of people, who might otherwise have difficulty finding jobs. They put people into the formal economy of developed and developing countries, and allow them to work their way out of poverty if they choose to do so.
In Canada, there are almost no street vendors because of asinine local municipal bylaws...but there ARE thousands of homeless people who can't find jobs or don't qualify for unemployment.
From an international development perspective, street vendors are great. |
I agree totally here..
there is no social welfare here.. most of the street venders are old people
these days many being men who lost their jobs and cant get another job or just people who need work.. if they dont sell out of a truck they will starve.. of course there are people who are doing it just for the money!
becuase if you get that pojangmacha in hongdae or myungdong you will be taking home about 10-million a month! now thats money!!!
im sure gangstas are involved here..dont know if they run the businesses or they just tax the people.. I mean illegal! yeah right!! look at gangnam ST.. thats IN YOUR FACE!! both sides of the street are just lined back to back with vendors!! illegal??? whatever!!!
I have heard that venders are illegal ever since I got to korea!
guess the poor helpless ajuma is the one who gets kicked to the curb and told to move.. but the other guys who have gangsta support get ignored!
BS man!!
dog eat dog world... |
I'm confused...this is korea....and I thought that koreans were big on family?!?! One big tight knit happy family who always help one another...so...why the street vendors who are old folks? I can't believe that thousands of them have no family! |
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JongnoGuru

Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:19 am Post subject: |
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Sage Monkey wrote: |
I don't understand why they don't just create a designated outdoor marketplace for the street vendors to congregate their stalls. They do this all over Europe and it is very effective. If there are concerns about these people not paying taxes, they should levy a small fee to place a stall in the designated market. |
Ahhh, stop making sense.
Seriously though, there already are countless open-air markets lined with stalls selling cheap eats, traditional eats, bizarre-looking eats, hygienically dubious eats, in virtually every village and city across the country.
And still, there are individual street vendors all over the place. The reason there are, of course, is their on-the-go convenience and their strategic location: crowded bus stops, busy intersections, subway exits, outside train stations, outside university gates, etc.
As Mindmetoo says, Korea doesn't have a well-developed social welfare system in place yet. Add to that a prolonged economic slump, falling domestic consumption, rising unemployment, and the budget-straining items this present administration dreams of financing (relocation of at least a chunk of the central government to the sticks, relocation of US 8th Army garrison, building an "independent defence capability", etc.). At a time like this, a total crackdown (a la the crackdown on "women of ill repute") on street vendors -- people just struggling to feed & house themselves and their families -- isn't only heartless, but stupid.
As for the griping about this lumpenproletariat not paying their fair share of taxes, bloody hell...The tax collectors can start doing their job by bringing to book just a small portion of the doctors & lawyers in the country who have the chutzpah to report monthly incomes as low as 2.5 million won. |
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Mashimaro

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:55 am Post subject: |
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I just wish that stock something other than dokk(rubber)bokki.
I don't have major problems with street food if it tastes good. The lack of variety in korean one's is horrendous though. |
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Swiss James

Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:58 am Post subject: |
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dunno about not having variety, the ones I see often do kimbap, sundae, hottuk, fried vegetables, pajeong, and odaeng |
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blindsheep
Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Location: n/a
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:06 am Post subject: |
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I support leaving the street venders alone as well. Focus on improving the welfare system in the country if you want to reduce them. I'm sure they don't exactly like being out on the street when its freezing outside. If they had a simple, more viable option, I'd be willing to bet they'd take it. |
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Mashimaro

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:08 am Post subject: |
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Swiss James wrote: |
dunno about not having variety, the ones I see often do kimbap, sundae, hottuk, fried vegetables, pajeong, and odaeng |
Excactly now try listing all the foods you can buy on the streets of bangkok. limit it to the stuff that tastes great and the list would still be three times that of korea's. |
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