[Takryucheongron] Yong Hye-in - The 4th Industrial Revolution and the 'Right to a Humane Life'

Yong Hye-in, proportional representative elected member of the Democratic Citizen Party. / Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

Yong Hye-in, Member of the Basic Income Party

In 1999, with the spread of high-speed internet and the implementation of flat-rate internet fees, the internet began to permeate the lives of the people extensively. In 2009, smartphones started to become widespread in Korea, enabling people to connect anytime, anywhere, and with anyone through the internet via small handheld devices. In 2019, the 5G era began. The development of artificial intelligence has been progressing rapidly, and Lee Sedol, who played Go matches against AlphaGo, announced his retirement.

Autonomous vehicles, unmanned convenience stores, smart factories, the Internet of Things, and various smartphone applications that enable real-time information acquisition?over the past decade, technological advancements have rapidly transformed the society we live in. However, despite technological progress, the lives of the people have not improved.

The tragic news of neighbors, such as the starvation of a North Korean defector mother and child in Gwanak-gu, the suicide of four women in Seongbuk, and the suicide of a family in Daegu, are heard repeatedly. This is the reality of South Korea in the era of a $30,000 national income. Society is changing rapidly, but the system cannot keep up with social changes, and existing welfare systems fail to protect the lives of the people.

"All citizens shall have the right to live a life worthy of human dignity." (Article 34, Clause 1 of the Constitution)

The Constitution, which contains the fundamental principles of the Republic of Korea, clearly states that all citizens have the right to live a life worthy of human dignity. Until now, this right has been guaranteed through "employment." While employed, people pay insurance premiums by enrolling in social insurance, including employment insurance, and if temporarily unemployed, they receive unemployment benefits. For a very small number of people who are unable to work, minimum living expenses are provided through selective welfare programs such as the basic livelihood security system. In the previous industrial structure, where factories were built, wages paid, people employed, products produced, and sold, such "selection" was possible.

However, society is changing rapidly. Now, the competitiveness of a company is not determined by how large a factory it builds or how many workers it employs. Replacing workers with machines and artificial intelligence, and how much "data" a company possesses, and how well it utilizes "big data" in its economic activities determine corporate competitiveness. As of 2017, companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google ranked among the top five in global market capitalization.

In contrast to GM, one of the most important companies in 1962, which directly employed 605,000 people, Facebook, one of the global top five companies, employs 120,000 people worldwide. The employment scale of the world's most successful companies has shrunk to one-fifth. Then, how can most citizens, who must work to make a living, maintain a "life worthy of human dignity" in a society where machines and artificial intelligence have replaced jobs due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

"Basic income, unconditionally and regularly paid to all citizens," has become a hot issue in Korean society and worldwide as a new method of distribution and social safety net in a society where jobs are disappearing.

The existing selective social safety net, which forces people to prove how poor they are, why they are poor, whether they can work or not, and whether they have dependents, only causes people to feel "humiliated." Moreover, in a society where most jobs have disappeared, screening a large number of people takes a long time and incurs high social costs. From a policy perspective, it is not efficient.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, discussions on basic income as a way to protect the lives of the people have just begun in the political arena. The most certain way to solve the problem may be to approach it in the simplest way. Providing basic income unconditionally and regularly to everyone would be the easiest way to guarantee the "right to live a life worthy of human dignity" in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. Society is already changing rapidly. Perhaps it is already too late. The National Assembly, as the workers and representatives of the people, must responsibly discuss the necessity of basic income, the timing and scope of its introduction, methods of securing funding, and ways to promote public debate.