Realizing $30,000 per capita income
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By Park Moo-jong
As expected, the national per capita income dropped to $27,340 last year, decreasing by $731 or 2.6 percent from 2014, thus failing to hit the $30,000 mark again for nine years since it first entered the much-awaited $20,000 range in 2006.
For reference, Japan and Germany took five years to breach the $30,000 mark, while the United States took nine, all crossing that line two decades ago in the 1990s.
Signs are that the Republic of Korea will not be able to break the "symbolic" $30,000 per capital income, a certificate of an advanced country in reality and also in name, in the "near" future.
Some may ask what the signs are.
Asked by foreigners in years past, I used to cite without hesitation the "social" problems, rather than the economic matters.
By the way, spring has come, along with more frequent outdoor activities.
Each day starts when we leave home and hit the streets on our way to school or to our workplaces where we most of the people we encounter are mostly strangers.
To help all these strangers live together in peace, requires law and order. The situation on the streets reveals everything about the living standards of a nation and its people.
This basic principle of any democratic society has been too easily ignored in this part of the world, making many wonder if they are living in a law-abiding country.
In short, social disorder has reached its limit, as too many citizens, giving the excuse of needing to earn their livelihoods, do not respect the law, while law enforcement authorities seem to be neglecting their duties.
Numerous police campaigns promising to crack down on violators of basic public order, including the traffic rules, have turned out to be fruitless.
If one looks around any Seoul street, either downtown or uptown, he or she can easily find illegal and disorderly scenes here, there and everywhere.
Cars are parked in almost all the tow-away zones across the city, disregarding the signboards erected with taxpayer funds, but police officers or district officials seldom check them. It is no wonder that the vehicles occupying one of the two or three lanes mar the traffic flow.
It would almost be better for the city government and police to remove the useless steel signboards and recycle them for other uses.
Adding insult to injury are the brazen drivers who do not hesitate to park their cars on the sidewalks, forcing pedestrians onto the motorways. Those who turn their yellow emergency lights on before leaving their cars may be acting conscientiously, although this does not make their behavior legal.
Most downtown sidewalks are packed with illegal open-air stalls to the chagrin of shops and store keepers who pay taxes.
In particular, drivers of motorcycles and scooters frequently drive on the sidewalks without any concern for pedestrians, to the surprise of foreigners, while "generous" Koreans just accept the situation.
How about the so-called political leaders, especially lawmakers?
The next parliamentary election will take place on April 13. The parties, either ruling or opposition, have suffered tough intraparty troubles in the course of nominating their candidates.
The decision of each party's official organ to choose the candidates must be respected under any circumstances. But it was a piece of cake for the dropouts, aspiring to become lawmakers, to move to other parties or to run as independents against the party's legal decisions.
People lament that the "season of betrayal" has come.
Insensitivity to public order and regulations is like the inability to feel pain from cancer or other diseases.
Basically, the current problems of our society are the natural results of the egoistic lifestyle of Koreans, who have a tendency to care only about themselves and their families, but are seldom willing to put themselves in the shoes of others.
They tend to be obsessed with gaining their own interests without taking into consideration the damage their egoistic actions would cause to other people. Politicians are typical.
Another example is that of unionized workers. It is their practice to occupy downtown streets and paralyze traffic during protests against management or the government with no pangs of conscience, causing tremendous inconvenience and pain to citizens.
The cynical expression that "another's misfortune is my fortune" testifies to the seriousness of the selfish behavior of Koreans.
However, better late than never. Doing something late, though, is better than not doing it at all.
It is not too much to stress the importance of education for the growing generation. Children whose kindergarten bus is always parked on the sidewalk in front of the school, only for the convenience for the “safety” of the bus driver and the children, have good reason to think that such a practice is not wrong.
I often tell friends and foreigners with conviction, "We will be able to attain the goal of $30,000 per capita income when we perfectly
succeed in establishing order in the operation of motorcycles."
Giving greater consideration to the concept of "after you" would be key to eliminating Korea's social disorder that cannot get any worse.
Park Moo-jong is the advisor of The Korea Times. He had served as the president-publisher of the nation's oldest English daily from 2004 to 2014 after he had worked as a reporter of the paper since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.