[The Editors' Verdict] Sorry, Actually...

"Money is also ability. Blame your parents." Everything started here and is condensed in this statement. We felt a sense of crisis that if we fail to stop the accelerating gap between rich and poor, which is solidifying into a society that determines the future of the next generation, there will be no hope forever.

The current administration launched with the famous slogan "Opportunity is equality." They deliberately did not promise never to threaten entrepreneurs again or to uphold democratic decision-making structures because they knew that was not everything. Therefore, the commitment to "fairness of process" seemed to properly read our fears and hopes. And now, after more than three years, has the "justice of results" they pledged come any closer?

The important thing is not whether something is illegal or legal. Even if all illegal elements are removed from Jung Yoo-ra's life, we know that a better world does not come automatically. Between a world of equality, fairness, and justice and the realm of crime, there exists a wall disguised as legality. Over the past 20 years, that wall has only grown higher; it is also called a legally tilted playing field or a legally advanced starting line. Ordinary people like us do not know a secretary who can call the military or a university professor who can build specs on a mother's request.

"Even if someone tries harder than you, they cannot beat you. Because you are buying ability with money." Jung Yoo-ra's sharp remark to "blame your parents" was probably a response to this criticism. The success of silver spoon children also involves effort, so they cowardly hide behind the fence of the legitimacy of effort and legality. The defenses of the administration officials and their children amid controversy, though more sophisticated in expression than Jung Yoo-ra's, are essentially the same.

The possibility of building one's own wall through effort is the driving force of social development. We cannot force the demolition of walls of wealth and power legally acquired just because they are public figures. We all live with walls higher than someone else's. But when the walls everywhere in society reach a level that no one can overcome, and when this problem spreads beyond the top few to the whole society, the driving force of development becomes a fortress wall and a catalyst for mutual destruction. Therefore, it is desirable for more people to question and reflect on whether their legitimate inheritance is reinforcing social contradictions.

However, there is no trace of such reflection in their lives. Just as Jung Yoo-ra and her mother did, only traces of fierce efforts to maximize the advantages of the playing field and starting line remain everywhere. Now that this is known to the whole world, their focus seems to be on proving their innocence and restoring their honor. They appear to have no interest in the fact that their hypocrisy weakens community solidarity needed to build a better society. We see those who once reached out to create a society where values, not legal boundaries, are the standard, ultimately rejecting our hands and quietly disappearing inside their fortress walls.

They may be innocent. The violations might have been less severe or unintentional than reported. But what matters more lies beyond that. We, left at the base of the fortress walls, must return to a world of infinite competition and survival of the fittest, accepting the huge legal walls and the rest of life as fate. Those higher and thicker walls of legality will oppress the lives of the next generation even more harshly. What use is it to reform the prosecution or launch the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office in such a world? "Sorry, actually money, connections, and power were ability." Their sneers seem to echo beyond the fence.

Chief of Social Affairs Shin Beom-su