A lot of Koreans complain the economy is in shambles because they believe what they hear and read in the media. Actually, the wealthy are doing great. The divide between the rich and poor is growing, and the rich control an ever increasing share of the wealth in Korea.
Regular Koreans do not earn $29,000 per year, which was the per capita income for Korea in 2017. Yet, a large number of them support the conservative party which is pro-big business and pro-rich.
This is because regular Koreans are not doing so well, so it seems the economy is bad for them. the conservatives, businesses and most media pick up on this and state that progressive policies are ruining the Korean economy. Most regular Koreans used believed this, but fewer and fewer are believing.
Due to the corruption of former presidents Keun-hye Park and Myung-bak Lee (spying on and blacklisting citizens, framing innocent people as North Korean spies, making deals with Korean courts for rulings against labor unions, etc.), support for the conservative party has decreased, in spite of the fact that most Korean media has mounted a vehement campaign against progressive and liberal ideals, calling it socialism and pro-communist. Pulling out all the dirty tricks and name calling. It used to work in the past, but not so much nowadays. They make it a really big deal, if President Moon's popularity falls a little and state it is because of his bad handling of affairs. As if that was BIG NEWS! What travesty!
I hope that common Koreans continue to not listen to the rich and most Korean media. Most media try to taint anything and anyone that is progressive or liberal with negativity.
I hope regular Koreans come to realize that they are suffering due to conservative policies and the wealthy hoarding all the money while treating common Koreans as second class citizens and acting like dictators.
Regular Koreans should boycott greedy enterprises and VOTE for people who will stand up for them. But alas, it seems most don't care.
