Korea has elected its next president
through an election with a 75.8% voter turnout rate--
it's a really impressive turnout (the US had ~57% for 2012),
and it is good to know that the people believe that their opinion is important.
as for the result of the election,
after looking at the president-elect's policies,
mostly centered on the economy,
I think what they are aiming for isn't bad,
and despite being the conservative platform,
it sounds like a very moderate-liberal policy with respect to US policies.
policies I've read so far
will try to create policies that will regulate the chaebol culture and prohibit any more of such structure to be formed
- similar to a policy against "big-business", something that a conservative in the US would try to avoid in their platform. it would be hard to carry this out knowing how much influence the chaebol companies have (hearsay, but I remember something like a 20% number on their influence on the national GDP), but as long as the president pushes with small and steady changes with the patience of an ox, it it's not impossible. I haven't read any specific measures that will be taken, so time will tell.
3 times the current spending to support small and medium businesses
- I guess it will be more of how it will be spent that will make this any good, but the efficient spending of the budget was one of their other goals, so that once again will be explained in time.
increase R&D spending to 5% of GDP
- it seems current R&D spending is 3.36% of GDP. it's a pretty big shift, and it's possible that this will be a part of the solution to the "3 times current spending on small/medium business" policy by rewarding most of these to small companies.
increase the "middle class" to 70%
- very subjective goal, unless there is a defined condition for being in this social class, and I have not found a definition yet. possibly more reasonable to say make 70% of people consider themselves middle class, but that is also very vague in how such a result will be obtained. however, this would also be indirectly achieved through extra funding of small/medium companies.
halve tuition through financial assistance; third child gets free pass to college
- addressing the need for the nation to increase the birth rate. the intention is good, but it should look at the US and definitely avoid a financial assistance program that involves loans that are interest-free only during college (long term disaster for many graduates). other than that, sounds like increased government spending like the others above.
plus increased government-subsidized retirement pensions and extended national medicare coverage.
so far, I have heard nothing about spending cuts,
which means down-to-earth policies have yet to be revealed,
unless it's going to be a straight-up tax hike.
I do remember reading that there is going to be a gradual increase in taxes,
but there definitely has to be something else to make all these plans possible.
then again,
it's possible a lot of these policies will not see light.
anyways,
it's time to be one nation again
and support the newly elected president.
hats off to you.
