Several months ago, in a building owned by a foundation controlled by the former president, Myung-bak Lee, prosecutors carrying out search warrants found documents from the police to the former president reporting on citizens and politicians critical of the Lee administration, among other incriminating documents.
The chairman of Korea Airlines, Yangho Cho, didn't use any of the numerous tax loopholes available to him. Instead, he just didn't report $44 million that he inherited, because it was held abroad. Now, if convicted, he faces at least 5 years in prison. But rich people always seems to get a suspended sentence of 2 years and probation. He is also being investigated for many more crimes. About time, he and his family have been doing crooked things for decades.
Job growth has drastically fallen from around 300,000 per month early in the year to 110,000 for the past three months and 70,000 for May.
Could it be businesses are cutting back on jobs and investment, in retaliation for increasing the minimum wage to around $7 and other liberal policies?
The economy is strong. Third month of record trade surpluses. Financial companies doing great due to increased interest rates. Something seem wrong?
On the news today, most of the media are reporting on the low job rate and ever increasing gap between the rich and poor. They are implying that President Moon's administration is to blame.
The ones to blame are the conservative administrations of the imprisoned former presidents Lee and Park, along with the conservative party. Disrupting unions. Decreasing tax on the rich. Stopping regulation of unfair business practices, such as raising rent by 1000% after 5 years. Ending loopholes that the rich use to pay no taxes in transferring wealth to their offspring. Almost all of the major Korean companies passed on control to the founder's children without paying any inheritance taxes.
If the world stopped buying Korean products, it wouldn't hurt me. Might hurt the rich much more than the poor.
Today, I read an article that I am in complete agreement with.
Especially this part - “The misconception is that people are using that [medical marijuana] as an excuse to get high. The reality is our average patient is 55-years-old,” Spirtos said. “These people aren’t out drug seeking. These are real people with real problems that are looking for an alternative that may be more effective.”
I go to doctors in Korea about pain and they just say to live with it. Even doctors are afraid to prescribe painkillers, because of the narcotics laws in Korea.
I have had cancer surgery three times, so I am lucky to be alive. It helped me to have a positive attitude on life. Hey! I am still alive! Almost 20 years since the last surgery. Thought I was a goner for sure, so I traveled the world and all around the Korea for a few years. Didn't die, so I had to get a job.
But I still have pain unrelated to cancer, but very serious. That's the reason for my interest in the legalization of cannabis. In addition to relieving pain somewhat, it helps me feel better.
Yesterday was election day for mayors and district officials. I noticed a large percent of people had no idea about the candidates or their qualifications. They asked each other questions that revealed their lack of knowledge. I guess 20-30%, are voting purely by guesswork with complete disregard of the facts and issues. Most don't even know the names of the candidates and are just voting for the party they like, or according to what the media feeds them.
The media is still strongly conservative. To describe the landslide victory by the liberal Democratic party they used the word "장악". They say that the Democratic party "conquered" all the districts. Media usually uses "장악" with force, dictators, and such, Sounds very negative. If the conservatives won, they would have used the word "landslide victory". Some media did, but some didn't. They keep shading the truth with negativity. Guess that's why the younger generation doesn't watch or read the news. They seem to mostly depend on SNS and peers for information.
Democracy in Korea seems about par with the US in the fifties. Watch the following videos to see what I mean.
