[The Editors' Verdict] Korea Dominated by a Parasitic Elite

Last Chuseok, a new greeting emerged. When someone says "Hwacheondaeyu haseyo," the reply is "Cheonhadongin haseyo." This is a satire expressing the frustration of ordinary people, referring to how a few investors made huge fortunes through the Pangyo Daejang-dong development project.

However, the parties who profited insist that higher investment risks lead to higher returns. They do not explain why the business structure was originally designed that way. The son of a lawmaker who received 5 billion won as severance pay defends himself by saying, "I was just a pawn in Squid Game," while his father tries to brush it off with a simple "I didn't know." Although financial institutions were involved in the investment consortium, the profits were swept up not by the financial institutions but by individuals participating through corporations resembling one-person companies.

What is astonishing is that the more you dig, the more networks of university alumni, legal circles, politics, and the economy are revealed like bundles of dried fish. A prominent lawyer who once sought a total of 45 years in prison for former President Park Geun-hye on charges of being an "economic community" without accepting a single bribe also appears. His daughter was employed as a Hwacheondaeyu staff member. In addition, there are former prosecutors general, former Supreme Court justices, and families of the heads of Korea’s top five conglomerates lined up like candies.

Even more absurd is that no one steps forward to say, "It is my responsibility." A presidential candidate who approved the Daejang-dong development project argues, "I did well because I took about half of the profits that would have gone to the private sector and returned it to the citizens."

The stress on people who have lived with sound minds grows daily. It makes normal people who have quietly struggled in their positions for their livelihoods question themselves, "Have I lived wrongly?" The sad part is that even if they decide, "Yes, I have lived foolishly. Maybe I should go crazy too," they are neither given connections nor opportunities. Even if they try to realize the meaning of Hwacheondaeyu, "gaining the world with the help of heaven," they have no "heaven."

If you add the 550 billion won that Seongnam City claims to have recovered and the approximately 400 billion won that went to the Hwacheondaeyu Brothers, it approaches 1 trillion won. Dividing 1 trillion won by the 5,248 households whose sales have been completed results in about 190 million won per household. In the end, each household was effectively ripped off by 190 million won.

We must note that this incident has revealed without exaggeration the existence of a massive parasitic group in Korean society. The so-called elites who make up the upper echelons of society turned out to be a huge "economic community" sharing all sorts of vested interests among themselves. As one presidential candidate said, a massive vested interest cartel exists.

The reality of the political hustlers who cross party lines and especially the legal community is shocking. Most excuses are that they only lent their names. They receive 10 million or 20 million won just for lending their names? Then they have sold their conscience.

While they comfortably hold money feasts within their economic community and vested interest cartel, how are the lives of ordinary people? There are countless people who cannot move into new homes because they lack 100 million or 200 million won. This is because the government is blocking financial institution loans altogether to curb housing demand. While ordinary people live in hell, the elite group is struck by a money lightning bolt with the help of heaven.

Among Max Weber’s works is a book titled The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. It states that diligence, labor, honesty, and credit?that is, a sense of vocational calling?are the core values of capitalism. If members of society abandon their vocational calling, they live merely as parasites. Money not earned honestly, money not earned through labor, money earned without effort?all of it is money stolen and extorted from someone else’s share. Korean society must now begin by setting its foundations straight.

Kang Young-chul, Invited Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management