[From Kwanghwamun] Korean equivalent of America`s `Bobos`

In the United States, people known as ``Bobos`` are prospering. They are the people who earned huge amounts of money by operating Internet businesses or cashing in on the growth of computer technologies. Bill Gates is among them. The Bobos have a spirit of liberalism characteristic of bohemians. Hence, American writer David Brooks invented the term bobos, created by combining the words bourgeois and bohemian.

Bobos are firmly committed to the capability-first ideal. Unlike the established elites, they defy any preemptive rights but respond to challenges with their own capabilities. Bobos are very rich, but they engage in constant self-reflection so as not to become corrupted.

Before the appearance of the term bobos, the ruling elite in the information industrial era were known as ``di-gerati,`` derived from the words digital and literati. Noting that a new class has emerged whose incomes are far greater than existing the white collar and ``golden collar`` classes, the new elites are sometimes called ``renaissance collar`` workers.

What about the situation in Korea? In the financial sector, there has been a revival of the terms seonggol (sacred bone), jingol (genuine bone) and yuktoo-pum (lower classes), elements of the class system of the ancient Shilla kingdom. Belonging to the seonggol class are those people who studied abroad in their youth thanks to their affluent parents. In other words, those who graduated from prestigious universities in advanced nations and can speak English fluently. They receive several hundreds of millions of won in annual salaries, 10 times more than those in the same age group in other domestic firms.

Jingol are those who graduated from Korean colleges, went abroad and earned doctorate degrees in business administration or economics or those who hold Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees. Although they are somewhat inferior to their seonggol counterparts, they play a key role in the business world. Those who belong to the yuttoo-pum class are graduates of domestic universities whose annual salaries are limited despite their abilities.

An yuktoo-pum class analyst with a local securities company complained that the seonggol succeed in innovating better products by simply adding a few features to the goods produced by the lower classes. A representative of the seonggol class should be rewarded based not on the length of time they work for a company but on how much added-value they create.

Prof. Shuji Nakamura of the University of California developed the light-emitting diode (LED). The Japanese firm that manufactured the product made an enormous profit from his innovation and owing to his contribution, Nakamura`s annual salary was doubled and he was promoted to section chief. If he had lived in the United States, he would be a billionaire. But he moved to a university in the U.S., claiming that in egalitarian Japanese society, creative ability among researchers is undervalued. He warned that a society that nips in the bud dreams of becoming a billionaire is doomed to ruin in the long run.

The total salary given to the 20 top employees of Samsung Electronics last year reached 29.8 billion won, an average of 1.49 billion won each. If the six outside directors of the board were excluded, their average pay would be about 2 billion won. When they heard this news, employees began grumbling about unfair treatment of ordinary ``salarymen.``

In the future, Korean society is sure to face accusations concerning its discriminatory salary system, which doesn`t take into account ability and achievements. There will be growing number of bobos, on the one hand, and a much larger number of salaried workers who make little money but are obliged to cling to their jobs. A compelling question is how to address potential friction between the classes. It is interesting to speculate how human ability and labor will be evaluated in the future.

Ko Seung-Cheol cheer@donga.com