[Oh Se-hoon 2nd Anniversary] "Lee Jae-myung's Basic Income, the Best Among Fallacies"

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Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon criticized former Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung's basic income policy as "the pinnacle of sophistry," stating, "It is based on the premise that the same amount of money should be distributed, and they try to find logical grounds for that." He argued that Seoul's Anshim Income, which supplements household income below 85% of the median income by a certain amount, is a superior policy.

At a press conference marking his second anniversary in office held at Seoul City Hall on the morning of the 1st, Mayor Oh responded to a question comparing his "Oh Se-hoon-style Anshim Income" with Lee Jae-myung's "basic income," saying, "When considering policy excellence, effectiveness, and cost-efficiency, basic income cannot even come close to Anshim Income."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon held a press conference on the morning of the 1st at Seoul City Hall to mark the second anniversary of his inauguration, evaluating the city administration over the past two years and outlining future plans.
[Photo by Seoul City]

In particular, Mayor Oh described former leader Lee's basic income as "based on the premise that the same amount of money must be distributed, which logically means that even wealthy people and high earners should receive it. Since it would be unfair if they only paid taxes and did not receive anything, the argument is simply to give it to them as well," adding, "Such sophistry should not be aired in public."

Mayor Oh has previously criticized former leader Lee's basic income as a "bad policy" that hinders the resolution of polarization. For example, the idea of providing the same amount of support to a high-income earner making 1 billion KRW annually and someone earning 20 million KRW is a policy that goes against common sense. Mayor Oh also stated on Facebook in the past that "the so-called basic income implemented by Lee during his time as a local government head mostly violated the principle of 'providing a fixed amount of cash regularly every month to everyone unconditionally,'" emphasizing that "limited national resources should be used where they are truly needed."

On this day as well, Mayor Oh stressed, "In any case, when considering policy excellence, effectiveness, and cost-efficiency, basic income cannot even come close to Anshim Income," adding, "The current basic livelihood security system has an exit rate of 0.07%, which is less than 0.1%. In contrast, the exit rate of Anshim Income is 4.8%, a revolutionary figure and a revolution in everyday life."

Regarding Seoul's declaration of the "first year of AI (Artificial Intelligence) administration," he stated, "AI will function as an assistant in all departments and all policies going forward." Mayor Oh also mentioned Seoul's recent receipt of the UN Public Administration Award, directly referring to Seoul's AI digital sexual crime deletion support program and AI-based chatbot SeoulTalk among other policies.