Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Doubts have been snowballing over the case of real estate developer Goodmorning City Co., which is shaping up into another illustration of corporate bribery plaguing Korean society.

The chief executive of the company, Yoon Chang-yeol, was arrested and charged by the prosecution early this week with embezzling investors' funds by exploiting a project to develop a shopping mall named after his firm.

Angry at the bribery charges, a group of individual investors in the shopping mall project yesterday called for the money Yoon used to bribe politicians to be returned to them.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/07/04/200307040071.asp

[Medic]

I read somewhere that Korea's culture is a face saving culture, and that western culture is more into the guilt trip. Koreans therefore do what ever they want if they can get away with it. The only sin in their eyes is to get caught, exposed and lose face. Rampant corruption is an old habit that the people haven't been able to kick. The younger generation are idealistic for a short while, but get very dissilusioned when they see the antics of their leaders.

The guilt trip is a personal and individual thing, in which we all monitor our behaviour in accordance with guidlines that we've aquired or been taught. There is no group consensus, and it's al up to you to do what you think and believe is right. If your choice is a bad and wrong then you have to live with it.

[billbile]

Yeah, and I love the reaction when they get caught; it's like "It's not fair! Why do you pick on me? I'm not the only one. Other people do it too.."

It was like this a year or three ago when the government was taking newspapers to the cleaners for not paying their taxes. You should have read the editorials, even in the English language edition. It was basically like that in the paragraph above.

And yes, the government may have been doing this to its political enemies only. The point is, it's not like it ever occurs to any of these businesses to just pay the correct taxes in the first place, so that the government can't touch them, and they can blow the government a big raspberry when it tries.

When you put this kind of argument to them, they cry: aaargh competition is so cutthroat, bla bla bla, we have to cheat!

But really? If a business can't afford its costs (taxes or otherwise) isn't downsizing the thing to do? Doesn't it mean they are undercapitalised for their industry? Wouldn't they be better off in an industry requiring less capital? If they did that, they could then pay all their costs, provide a fantastic service, so that when their opposition goes down because of tax investigations or whatever, they are in a position to gain and expand.

But the true story is greed. Some of these business people are too greedy to be in a business area that matches their financial capacity. They want to be one of the big boys.

That's what it really is. Besides, one of the maxims of Korean business, I have often heard, is that 'honest people are stupid people.'

I have to say, I often wonder who the stupid people really are when I see these companies stumble or collapse entirely for not being honest about stuff like taxes, etc.