[Opinion] “75 Billion Won in Cash”

“As the monetary unit becomes larger, it is harder to cut the budget. We can quickly judge if the money is needed if it is under one billion won, but when it goes over the one billion won level, we are not so confident because we can’t really sense how large the amount actually is.” These are the words of a public service worker who has worked more than 10 years in budget affairs. The people who watch the political fund scandals, in which the amount can rise to tens and hundreds of billion won, either from the government or the opposition parties, will feel the same kind of confusion. They can’t sense the actual amount of money, and so it is even harder to judge how angry to become. If it weren’t for the two events which occurred, we might have just passed by without giving it much thought.

The eyes of the readers who had read the Wednesday morning newspaper will probably have stopped at the picture of a heap of cash in a living room. When will common people, who most likely have never seen even one billion won in cash in their lifetime, ever get to see 75 billion won in cash? Before long, we might even get to see if the “Dynasty” car can run with 40 to 50 billion won in cash loaded in it. At the public trial of Kwon No-gab, the former adviser of the Millennium Democratic Party who was charged with receiving 200 billion won of slush fund from Hyundai, prosecutors and lawyers took on an argument, and the court has decided to inspect the actual scene. The prosecutors’ investigation on the poll funds has expanded, so we might get to see even more surprising sights.

Anyways, I think that the monetary authorities did a good job in not making a 100,000-won bank note. Of course, it doesn’t go with the economic logic. The average life of a 100,000-won cashier’s check is eight days, very short compared to the four-year lifespan of a 10,000-won bill. There is much waste in this. So, if a 100,000-won bill is made, we don’t have to go through the trouble of writing our social security number and showing our registered ID card. In addition, the fact that the 10,000-won bill, which first showed up when the national income was $394 per person, is still the largest printed bill in the $10,000 era, and this doesn’t seem to quite match with the present situation. If the people didn’t have to go through the trouble of going to a dark underground parking lot to be kept from easily being seen, “black money” would probably have been more prominent now.

The Korean bill only has the standards written on the bill, such as the name of the bank, the denomination, the agency where it was issued, and the agency where it was made. On foreign bills, we can easily find slogans and phrases written on it. On the U.S. dollar, the words “We believe in God” is written. On North Korea’s one-won bill, the phrase “There is nothing to envy in the world” is written. The English word “money” comes from the Latin word “moneta,” which means “warning•advice.” If our country decides to put a warning on our 10,000-won bill, what kind of subject will best fit in it? If it weren’t for our country’s dignity, “You can go to jail if you get too carried away by cash” would be just right.

Chun Kwang-Ahm, Editorial Writer, iam@donga.com