Readers’ voice

On taxing the wealthy ...

Can imposing a new tax on the wealthy narrow the gap between the poor and the rich? No. First, I don’t understand why the government is presenting such a poor policy as an alternative to solving the gap. Forcing the rich to pay more taxes doesn’t guarantee the poor’s improvement. It can shrink the whole economy of Korea and promote hidden trade and deals. For a better economy, the government should encourage the rich to spend more money. Instead, why doesn’t the government spend more time studying ways to secure more jobs for the poor and increasing welfare for them. Don’t pull down the rich, but raise the station of the poor to meet the rich.

― Lee Hye-won, Seoul, via Facebook


Let’s suppose that you are wealthy and own an enterprise. Without workers to make products in your factory, you can’t sell anything and eventually will go bankrupt. Or if you have a property, without tenants you just have a building which absorbs money on repairs and maintenance.

Exemplified in these examples is that as you are a member of the public, you can’t live without other people in your life.

A country is managed with money from other people. This money is needed to feed the soldiers who guard the country, to build subways, highways and even clean the street. This money is tax.

For example, 1 million won has a different meaning to people making a lot of money per a month than to people scraping a living with a small daily wage.

Enormous amounts of money are needed to manage a country. In collecting that money, the government cannot help levying tax on people. If the same tax affects both wealthy and poor people, that enormous amount of money is impossible to collect.

Though taxes rates for some people are different for than others, people need to keep in mind that one can’t live alone, and should be content paying taxes.

― So Kyung-suu, Seoul



On the Korea-U.S. FTA ...

I don’t know enough about it but its surprising to see the way in which Koreans are responding to it. In theory a “trade agreement” sounds like a great idea, especially if it will make certain goods cheaper for consumers.

― Holly Hamilton, Gunpo, via Twitter