By Lee Gun
Last Saturday, I visited a community welfare center located near my home. It was for group volunteer work encouraged by my school. I have usually considered this school volunteer work to be a waste of my time, but this time, it was different. I delivered free lunch boxes to poor senior citizens who live alone and people with disabilities. I thought this experience was invaluable, because I could meet people facing difficulties and experience their challenges firsthand.
While I was doing this volunteer work, I met a little kid who lives with his grandmother. He has to take care of his grandmother, so he could not live an ordinary life as a student. He could not study in a private educational institute like any other Korean student does, because his family doesn't have the money for it.
After I got back home, I told this story to my parents. They said that in their generation, most people lived and studied in those poor conditions. So at that time, the proverb, ``Rising from a humble family,'' fit the situation, because they kept making an effort to succeed.
Nowadays, however, this proverb doesn't make sense anymore. As the result of Korea's industrialization, the gap between the rich and the poor has become enlarged and the total GDP of Korea has grown at the same time. In other words, the increased national income was distributed unfairly. The living conditions of poor people became even worse.
Statistically, the top 10% percent of the population owns 50% of the total assets. However, the bottom 50% of the population owns only 1% of them. This income gap between the rich and the poor keeps getting bigger, and the previous generation's social and economic status is inherited by their children. For instance, the college entrance rate from very rich families is much higher than that of poor families. This is because rich people spend seven times more money on private education than poor people. According to the latest research by the KDI, the chance for the poor to completely escape from poverty is only 6% because of this. As a result, the rich become richer, while the poor become poorer.
Nevertheless, the welfare system of Korea is not good enough. Only half of all persons with disabilities are registered and supported. Also, only 0.3% of our senior citizens are being cared for in welfare centers, which is a markedly low figure compared to that of other developed countries. Worst of all, the welfare service and program itself is actually very poor.
The size and scale of our total income is so large that Korea ranks 13th place in terms of global GDP. It means now we must pay attention to not only the growth of income, but also the fair distribution of it. However, the policy of the Korean government is going in the opposite direction of this situation. The total welfare expenditure of Korea is almost the lowest among OECD countries. Also, the government is trying to privatize medical insurance. If this happens, poor people would receive worse medical service than now.
Fortunately, there are many people who care about poor people and try to help them in many ways such as volunteering. However, this kind of effort always has limitations. In my opinion, to solve this problem fundamentally, our government should care more about the fair distribution of wealth and the establishment of a good welfare system. If not, the expression, ``Rise from a humble family'' will disappear, and be replaced by ``Rise from a rich family.''
Lee Gun is a second grader attending Jungsan High School. He can be reached at shakgun@naver.com.