Dear editor,
Regarding an Oct. 18 article, ``Beggars in Subway Face Fines," I question the effectiveness of penalizing beggars in subway stations, because they're financially badly off, so they're not persuaded to abandon their last resort even under the pressure of regulation.
Instead, the government must seek solutions to help the beggars and peddlers to be an economically active population and make a legal living. Thus, employment policy should be considered prior to fines, and one of the best ways is to create proper jobs for them.
Seeing that they've been in a long-term jobless situation, they also need to be provided with vocational education so that they can adjust to new occupations and keep their jobs.
These efforts are not enough. The government has to make efforts to promote the housing welfare of homeless people in subway stations. Imposing fines on those people doesn't force them to move out of the stations, as they don't have any other dwelling alternatives except these.
If rest places are arranged for them to stay in, they won't have to occupy the cold and hard floor of a train or station, and be subject to fines.
Along with the above counter-plans, there is the last but most important thing to think about: that is, an attempt to understand their situations and manner.
Although it's true that passengers are irritated and operational safety is hampered by lawbreakers in subways, before blaming and penalizing them, we should contemplate why they've turned against our society.
While they've led a typical loser's life in the extremely competitive environs of Seoul, they've built up antagonistic feelings against society.
Therefore, monetary penalties don't exert any influence on their attitude. After all, being punished with a fine drives them into a more severe predicament and causes them to feel more isolated from society.
If hopeless and jobless people in subway stations don't keep their social balance mentally as well as economically, we can't expect the situation to improve.
Our society should try to embrace beggars in subway stations in more ways than one, before imposing fines that could be considered as the next best policy.
Ko Yu-kyung Seoul waycool7@hanmail.net