[Editorial] Help the People Sustain their Livelihoods

It is questionable whether President Roh Moo-hyun and the political circle are fully aware of and feel truly responsible for the desperate public sentiment begging for help in surviving and making a living. President Roh had declared that he would “exert the utmost efforts in the economic recovery” at the last Chuseok, the autumn harvest holidays. The pledge rings false, for it is hard to believe that the current economic difficulties and people’s hardships are at this level when efforts were earnestly dedicated to this end in politics and policies.

In his Chuseok message this year, President Roh said, “All-out efforts are being dedicated for economic recovery.” He also repeatedly stated, “Let’s have hope. The situation will get better.” However, the public sentiment reaffirmed during the holidays was “What is the government doing in leaving the economy to deteriorate? Stop all political bickering and stabilize the people’s livelihoods.” It is difficult to have faith or hope as the president insists “the situation will improve as all-out efforts are being dedicated to the economy” when it does not appear so to the people.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Lee Hun-jai said, “Next Chuseok, we will be able to talk about this year’s economic difficulties as past memories.” However, it is highly unlikely that many people will take heart at such empty rhetoric.

The president, the ruling party, and policy makers should not stop at empty words or at blaming others. If they say “don’t worry” with no grounds, the people’s despair will increase as suspicions will grow that the political sector makes light of the economy. It is useless to put up numbers suggesting that the nation’s economic growth rate is higher than that of advanced nations with a $30,000 per-capita income, when the nation faces a structural crisis that could threaten the nation’s economy to collapse even below the $10,000 per-capita income level. The harsh reality of the nation’s economy and people’s livelihoods must be faced, and national powers and political capabilities must be joined together. If the government lacks capabilities, it must at least act up to its words.

More than enough trials have taken place. With no efforts to strengthen the nation’s growth potential, no job creation or improved equal division is possible. If Korea continues to dampen the urge to run a business and to threaten management rights, enhanced competitiveness in the global market and expansion of investments are all but far-off dreams. It is difficult to even maintain the current national wealth if the nation continues to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots, use the economy for political purposes, hold on to unreasonable regulations, and manipulate the economy forcefully. How can the people have hope when the government acts as if its fate depends on the capital relocation, the past history probe, and the national security law repeal while the “all-out efforts on the economy” is mentioned only as an afterthought?