Finland is giving about $500 a month to 2,000 unemployed as an experiment into Universal Basic Income. Seoul Mayor Park Won-sun introduced a watered downed version where they give a few hundred dollars a month for a few months to young unemployed, so that they can use the money to find jobs or get training. He tried to do more, but the Park administration opposed him, took him to court and other things.
Mayor Park has tried many other good solutions to solve many problems. All the time, the ruling party and President Park have attacked his policies and character. Why? The ruling Saenuri Party seems to prefer the cognitively dissonant and Mayor Park is certainly not one of those.
Very few articles in the media have been favorable to any of Mayor Park's policies and all have repeated the Saenuri Party's criticism of his policies as leftist and populist. His popularity rating for Presidential candidate is down there at 4% with Ahn Chul-soo, another good person. In my opinion, they receive a lot of bad press and flak, so the polls are sort of biased. They both led the polls at times in years past, but then were blasted by the media.
Business Insider: Finland just launched an experiment giving 2,000 people free money until 2019
Mayor Park has managed to pay off 6-7 billion dollars of debt incurred by the previous mayor's foolish construction projects and disastrous policies. President Park's administration managed to rack up the fastest rate of debt among developed countries. Where did all the money go? To big business? To President Park's associates?
Korea Herald: South Korea has fastest growing government debt in G-20
