[The Editors' Verdict] The Malaise of 'One Million Closures'

The reality of the "era of one million self-employed business closures" suggests that launching a new business is almost like taking a waiting ticket for closure. It starkly illustrates just how severe the situation facing our economy is. The even greater problem lurking beneath the surface is the fact that, despite these circumstances, countless people are still being pushed into the frontlines of entrepreneurship.

There is little that can ease the vicious cycle of involuntary entrepreneurship-undertaken out of desperation-leading to excessive competition in local markets and inevitable closures, except for the safety net of corporate employment. Opportunities for wage employment that are reasonably good or at least not severely lacking, the extension of time in which one can secure earned income, and the resulting predictability in post-retirement household planning-these are the most reliable social safety nets and the foundation of sustainable welfare. In this way, corporations and local businesses, corporate capital and households, are intertwined far more directly and intricately than one might think.

In these days, when politics has devolved into a life-or-death struggle that consumes everything, and battles over outdated or obsolete ideologies rage like an active volcano, even mentioning words like jobs or job creation feels like a luxury, even at the level of slogans. The current situation stands in stark contrast to the Moon Jae-in administration, which, regardless of outcome, even installed a jobs dashboard. This new reality feels unfamiliar.

The current administration appears to be constantly searching for short-term fixes. For example, it is unclear whether large-scale fiscal spending and cash handouts such as consumption coupons have ever led to industrial investment and job creation for the future. Judging by President Lee Jaemyung's insistence-disregarding context-that "in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the national debt ratio exceeds 100%," it seems unlikely that this trend will change anytime soon.

Regardless of whether one likes corporations or not, their capacity and willingness to hire are ultimately the key. Yet, while pushing forward with such populist stopgap measures, the administration simultaneously generalizes longstanding issues and irregularities in certain sectors, treating all corporations as targets for punishment and correction. This approach has strayed far from the natural order of economic and industrial policy.

The legislative pressure, marked by punishment, criminalization, and stigmatization with no room for compromise, pushes corporate decision-making about job creation to the lowest priority. Negotiations with the United States, which essentially trade astronomical sums of capital outflow for tariff concessions, are tantamount to transferring a portion of the production and business operations of leading conglomerates-the backbone of the industrial sector-to the U.S. Many mid-sized and small businesses that depend on these conglomerates, as well as even smaller companies that will be hit in succession, now face the urgent risk that a significant portion of the jobs they provide could be hollowed out entirely.

The job market is already frozen, with about 400,000 small and medium-sized corporations posting net losses last year. Today, the number of people who have given up looking for work and are simply idle has surpassed 500,000-the highest since statistics have been kept. The endless cycle of hopeless startups and inevitable closures begins at this point. There is no magic solution to thaw this frozen landscape other than respecting and compromising with the principles of industry, market, and business, and infusing even the faintest signals of growth with a long-term perspective. Amid all this, the chill emanating from politics and policy, which are now moving in reverse, is simply too intense.