Forum for Alternative Ideas
Welfare Society (1)
There is consensus among Korean progressives lately, one that holds that society itself can guarantee the country's future. The idea at the core of this is a "welfare society."
In advanced European countries, the welfare state is already recognized as a universal value. Some of Europe's welfare systems were curtailed after the 1980s, but their overall structure is still intact. The question is how to establish a welfare system appropriate for Korea. The Hankyoreh recently held the first in a series of round table discussions, titled the "Forum for Alternative Ideas," with the subject of welfare the final topic covered at the first round.
The discussion was held April 22 and attended by Korea University professor Go Se-hun, Chungang University professor Kim Yeon-myeong, Yonsei University professor Kim Ho-gi, Hanshin University professor Lee Il-yeong, Sangju University professor Hong Seong-tae, Anglican University professor Sin Jeong-wan, Jinju National University professor Bak Jong-hyeon, and Jeon Byeon-yu of the Korea Labor Institute. --Editor
In Korean society, "welfare state" and "welfare society" are terms without substantial meaning. In fact, to South Koreans they might sound like words spoken from another planet. This is due to the strong, widespread anti-welfare sentiment felt across Korean society. Forum participants agreed that figuring out what aspect of Korean society prevents real welfare from happening, and then pushing to change this aspect, is of greatest urgency. This would be the first step in realizing the ideal of a welfare society, the participants said. Korea University professor Go Se-hun spoke with the most emphasis on the subject, saying that anti-welfare thinking is a vicious cycle. "Many Koreans are intensely against welfare," said Professor Go. "They positively hate it. That is because Korea has no real tradition of welfare and no one can ever recall receiving any benefits from the government." The professor is talking about deeply internalized feelings Koreans have that make them guarded against the idea of a welfare state. This anti-welfare sentiment is the product of the establishment. "There are strong elements out there blocking Korea's becoming a welfare society," said Professor Hong. "Big business, officialdom, the conservative media, and others who stand to win large gains in a society with no welfare form an anti-welfare network. "Welfare is at best seen as benevolence for the poor and pitiful," Professor Hong continued. "Otherwise, it is the object of misunderstanding and rejection, labeled as 'commie thought.'" The result is that people have long forgotten that welfare is "about giving all members of society the right to live like human beings." Contributing to the problem is government incompetence, which has fostered distrust of the goals of social welfare. "There are doubts about the state's competence, as it has little experience other than planning from above," said Professor Lee. The state and the whole of bureaucratic society have a deeply imbedded image of "tax extortion," he said, in which the government takes money from the people and squanders it in corrupt ways. The doubts are not without basis. Mr. Jeon of the Korea Labor Institute noted that "expanding social services requires government competence," but the government is "weak in that area." Even when money is budgeted for welfare projects, the government does not know how to use it correctly, he said. There is a clear gap between the "anti-welfare" thinking of Korean bureaucratic society and the West's welfare states, where civil servants in the public sector are faithful spokespersons and executors of their welfare systems. In Korea, "bureaucrats have strong anti-welfare tendencies," according to Professor Go. Even the labor movement is locked within this anti-welfare trap. "[The labor movement] works against putting social resources to use for a welfare state…by making demands for higher wages look more attractive," said Professor Kim of Chungang University. "The powerful unions pretend they are interested in welfare issues, but their actions speak differently," said Professor Hong. "Korea has no agency for coordinating differences between parties in a way that makes compromise possible, which is essential in building a welfare state," Professor Bak said. "Korea also lacks a cultural and political system that promotes compromise." The result is that various factors hold back everything that would promote an improvement in the situation. "Backward thinking about welfare leads to politics that are against it," noted Professor Go. "As long as a majority of the people don't demand it from their politicians, there's no way the politicians are going to provide any system for welfare." Participants came up with two suggestions. The first is to continue to make sure people have more exposure to the idea of a welfare society. According to Mr. Jeon, many people receiving welfare benefits in the "basic livelihood guarantee" program say it is the first time they have ever seen anything like it. "Their experience becomes the cultural basis for support," he said. Also needed is political leadership that elevates the culture of welfare. "The labor movement is endlessly weak right now, so one should not expect too much from it," said Professor Go. "We earnestly need political leadership that promotes the welfare system."
