[Opinion] Roh’s Poor

In Asia, per-person disposable income should be more than $3,000 annually if one is to be categorized as middle class. Those in the middle class create demand for housing and automobiles and help the market grow. A Japanese research study shows that the Asian middle class will increase from 159 million in 2004 to 407 million in 2009. Considering 55 percent of new middle-income bracket will be in China and 31 percent in India, the Korean middle class will account for a small proportion in comparison.

When the middle class, the backbone of society, is robust, society as a whole can be bright and healthy. This is why each country tries to strengthen the middle class. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defined that the middle class is people who fall into the income bracket that is 50 percent to 150 percent of the national medium income. Based on this definition, the middle class in Korea has constantly decreased from 68.5 percent in 1997, 65.3 percent in 2001, to 63.9 percent in 2004. Many expect the middle class and the number of wealthy people, compared to other countries, to increase, but this is not the case. Only 56 percent of Koreans saw themselves as middle class, slightly recovered from 45 percent during the Asian financial crisis but still less than 70 percent ten years ago.

What is worse is that only a small portion of the middle class scale up to the high-income bracket and the majority fall below poverty line. The proportion of the poor went up from 12 percent in 2001 to 13.6 percent in 2004. That of the upper class remains the same for years. Lee Jae-oh, Grand National Party floor leader, called those who fell into poverty under the Roh administration “Roh’s poor.” Over the last three years, Roh’s poor increased to some 700,000. The government has cried out for narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, but it rather expanded the poor class while it relied on tax increase which came as a burden to the middle class.

Some nations recognize the middle class as being up to a certain standard in terms of educational background and political philosophy as well as income. To be defined as the middle class, one should be good at musical instruments, cooking, and foreign languages, should abandon irregularities and self-righteousness, and should be active in protecting social justice. In Korea, however, more people are drawing the line between you and me, being jealous of others’ success, hiding one’s own mistakes, and criticizing other’s flaws. Psychologically, more people seem to fall into Roh’s poverty.

Hong Kwon-hee, editorial writer, konihong@donga.com