Elderly Outcasts: A Diagnosis of Elderly Poverty within Korean Society

 

One of Korea’s most imminent problems is its rapidly aging society, which means that over 7% of its population is over the age of 65. It is estimated that by the year 2050, 65.7% of Korea’s population will be over 65 years old. However, the elderly population is not in good shape. Korea now ranks number one in terms of elderly poverty among 34 OECD member countries. 49.6% of the Korean elderly population lives under the poverty line which is 4 times more than the OECD average rate.[1] Korea is also the number one country for elderly suicide rates.[2] With Korea’s low birth rate and increasing elderly population, these problems are expected to increase over the course of time. Thus, immediate action attempting to alleviate the symptoms of elderly poverty. The following essay will now proceed to elaborate the causes that contributed to the making of this current situation, and conclude with possible solutions to exacerbate the issue.

Improvements in science and medical technology have immensely lengthened the span of human life. That combined with Korea’s drastically low birth rate of 1.17 infants per person has led to the increase of the elderly within Korea. [3] Now, approximately 5.2millon people, 13% of Korea’s entire population, are over 65 years old. [4] Yet, nearly half of this percentage has to endure a low standard of life to the point where a majority of them resort to committing suicide. What has pushed the elderly to live through such financially challenged lives? One major reason is due to the lack of proper elderly welfare. Korea’s welfare system in its current form is close to ineffective. HelpAge International, an international NGO dedicated to promoting elderly rights and welfare ranked Korea 60^th place out of 96 countries in terms of its standards for elderly welfare. The year before that, Korea ranked 50^th place.[5] It shows that Korea is receding in terms of its welfare. Recently, the government has announced its plans to raise the state pension age from 65 to 70. By doing so, elderly citizens from the age of 65 to 68 years old will not be able to benefit from all current elderly welfare policies including state pension. As the average mandatory retirement age in Korea is 53 years old, this now means that people must have enough money to support themselves for at least 17 years at the time of retirement. As an reaction to Korea’s aging society, the government has decided to reduce the scope defining the term “elderly” rather than focusing on increasing benefits and improving existing policies.

Things were already bleak even before this new proposal by the government. Already the quality and quantity of Korea’s elderly welfare is insufficient compared to many countries.

“… transfer payments, such as social retirement benefits and public pension payments, only make up about 28.8 percent of the average income of the Korean elderly, while they account for almost 70 percent of the average income of senior citizens in many European countries, such as Denmark and the U.K.” (Lee.C, 2015) [6]

On top of that, the state pension given to the elderly is about 200,000 won which is an extremely meager amount of money to depend on for a living. In cases where the overall income of an immediate family member of an elderly citizen exceeds government standards, that citizen is not eligible to receive full state pension even if s/he has not received any financial support from that family member.[7] Consequently, a majority of the elderly population are left in a situation where they are financially independent on a government with major holes in its welfare system.

So, what can be done to alleviate this seemingly devastating situation? It goes without saying that the government must prioritize spending more time and money on improving the current welfare system more than anything else. Ironically, quite a lot of money is spent on programs that focus on the reemployment of the elderly. Last year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare spent 350 billion won (300 million USD) on elderly reemployment programs which is 4 times more what the Ministry spent on youth employment programs. [8] There is enough money to provide the elderly with the needs they have, but it is clear that the current budget is not being used effectively. What is most needed right now is providing more pension and mitigating the criteria for receiving pension so the elderly can receive enough money to make means without being restricted by technicalities. However, this does not mean that elderly reemployment programs should be neglected. Korea’s elderly reemployment rate is indeed one of the highest among OECD countries (63.1%) but only 10% involve cases where the elderly got reemployed in the field of expertise they used to work for. [9] The majority of cases involve the elderly working as guards or janitors for buildings. Effective reemployment programs that help retired citizens who seek work keep carrying on in their field of expertise should be implemented instead of its current incompetent one.

It is estimated that by the year 2050, 65.7% of Korea’s population will be over 65 years old making it a super-aged society.[10]This means there is a great possibility that elderly poverty could grow into a bigger problem than it is right now. The fact that the leading cause contributing to elderly poverty is due to the lack of adequate elderly welfare can be viewed as a double edged sword. It can be alleviated with governmental care and competent programs and policies, but if the government chooses not to take active action it cannot be overcome through individual effort. Currently, there are seemingly little visible consequences caused from elderly poverty which is also part of the reason why the government is not paying as much attention to the issue as needed. However, as time passes and more and more elderly suffering from poverty increase, our society will slowly collapse. A typical aged society itself is problematic as it creates a situation where the outnumbered youths have to be financially responsible for both themselves and the elderly. An aged society suffering from chronic extreme poverty will be very hard to maintain a certain level of quality of life let alone expect economic growth. Thus, it is absolutely necessary that the government spends copious time and resources on enhancing elderly welfare and viciously tackle the issue of elderly poverty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Choi.C(2015). Our aging society must be overcome through the coexistence of young and old Retrieved from http://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4510683 .

Cho.E (2014). Elderly citizens suffering from extreme poverty are now being denied from receiving state pension. Retrieved from http://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4037004 .

 

Hong.S(2015). Why financial preparation for life after retirement should start now. Retrieved from http://kor.theasian.asia/archives/148583

Jeon.K (2014). Korea ranks bottom in birth rates, pressure of child care being the underlying cause. Retrieved from http://www.ajunews.com/view/20140616083301146 .

Kim.S (2015). The neglected elderly within our society. Retrieved from http://the300.mt.co.kr/newsView.html?no=2015112512077614338

 

Kim.Y. (2015). Korea’s elderly poverty rate tops OECD. Retrieved from http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150522000739 .

 

Lee.C(2015).Debate brews over talk of new retirement age in Korea. Retrieved from http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20151021001146

N.A (2015). Korea ranked 60^th out of 96 countries in older people’s welfare. Retrieved from http://english.hankyung.com/news/apps/news.view?c1=01&nkey=201510121610151 .

 

N.A(2015).Korea’s elderly welfare ranks last place among all OECD countries, a disgrace. Retrieved from http://www.daejonilbo.com/news/newsitem.asp?pk_no=1189338 .

 

Um.K. (2015).Korea’s elderly driven to the last ditch. Retrieved from http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2015/nwdesk/article/3836196_17821.html .

 

Yoo.H.(2015). Korean elderly poverty, main cause is due to lack of proper pension plans. Retrieved from http://www.redian.org/archive/93173 .

 

 

[1] Kim.Y. (2015). Korea’s elderly poverty rate tops OECD. Retrieved from http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150522000739 .

 

[2] Um.K. (2015).Korea’s elderly driven to the last ditch. Retrieved from http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2015/nwdesk/article/3836196_17821.html .

[3] Jeon.K (2014). Korea ranks bottom in birth rates, pressure of child care being the underlying cause. Retrieved from http://www.ajunews.com/view/20140616083301146 .

[4] Choi.C(2015). Our aging society must be overcome through the coexistence of young and old Retrieved from http://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4510683 .

[5] N.A (2015). Korea ranked 60^th out of 96 countries in older people’s welfare. Retrieved from http://english.hankyung.com/news/apps/news.view?c1=01&nkey=201510121610151 .

[6] Lee.C(2015).Debate brews over talk of new retirement age in Korea. Retrieved from http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20151021001146

[7] Cho.E (2014). Elderly citizens suffering from extreme poverty are now being denied from receiving state pension. Retrieved from http://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4037004 .

 

[8] Kim.S (2015). The neglected elderly within our society. Retrieved from http://the300.mt.co.kr/newsView.html?no=2015112512077614338

 

[9] Kim.S (2015). The neglected elderly within our society. Retrieved from http://the300.mt.co.kr/newsView.html?no=2015112512077614338

 

[10] Hong.S(2015). Why financial preparation for life after retirement should start now. Retrieved from http://kor.theasian.asia/archives/148583

Week 15 : Kenya

It would be indeed hard for Korea to make profits from investing in Kenya but whether it would help demonstrate Korea’s maturity as a developed nation carries some doubts. Considering the size of Kenya’s economy and its small scientific field the profits made from introducing Kaist to Kenya will be almost nonexistant. In fact, Korea would be bearing the financial burdens singlehandedly.  If Korea stays firm in investing in Kenya, it would be better to support Kenya into building a sustainable agricultural infrastructure as Kenya depends heavily on agriculture along with tourism.

201585003 Rina Shiiya
201202968 Jung Yun Lim

Week 14: Kenya

Exporting Korea’s education system to Kenya is a great idea considering the massive potential Kenya has. Currently, Kenya’s economy is not that strong, but it has been growing consistently for the past years and is expected to grow more in the future. Its population is approximately 45,000,000 people which is similar to Korea’s population but with more young people who could take advantage of Korea’s education system. If a Kenyan Kaist is built, Kenya’s science field would depend greatly on Korea and this could lead to an increase of Kenyan exchange students majoring in science to Korea.Later on, Kenya people familiar with the Korean science education system could come to Korea to find jobs and study science intensively in Korea. Also, Kenya has a growing energy industry with a nuclear power plant being built now and oil reserves being discovered consistently. Right now, China is the biggest investor in Kenya but is also responsible for creating many environmental problems due to reckless development and construction. Overall, Kenya itself has great potential and Korea could benefit greatly from investing in Kenya with a well-thought out and eco-friendly investment approach.

Rina Shiiya
Jung-Yun Lim

Week 11: Diplomacy 2

rash and overreacting to claim that South Korea’s current cultural strategy underlies in cultural imperialism. There is no denying that cultural products of South Korea are quite the rage in Asia, especially in South-East Asian countries. However, the enthusiasm of the South-East Asian audience and South Korean manufacturers are equally balanced out. There is no coercion, market monopolization nor the force feeding on Korea’s part.  On the contrary, it can be said the rising popularity of South Korean movies and dramas are keeping the worldwide domination of Hollywood in check. The cultural lifestyle, plots, and fashion and such depicted in Korean dramas and movies are different from what South-East Asian audiences are used to which is why they are actively copying what is shown in dramas and wanting more Korean products. To accuse South Korea of attempting cultural materialization is to accuse the receiving audience of obediently succumbing to the Korean wave which is not the case.

Week 11: Diplomacy

The Korean government should not even consider postponing the discussion of comfort woman for the sake of raising Japan exports. Yielding profits from exports and having a strong economy is needed and even required from a country. However, gambling the discussion of comfort women on export rates is nothing short of outrageous. Does that mean that the government intends to never talk about the subject if export rates fail to rise to the desired 40 %? The current government is well known for its almost obedient attitude towards Japan. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but to prioritize business with Japan without alleviating issues of the past is worthy of criticism. The issue of comfort women is an issue that transcends the boundaries of history. The people hurt from the atrocities of the Japanese are still well and alive and young and old citizens are still angered by the deeds of the Japanese. It is an issue that speaks to Korean citizens in a almost personal matter. Therefore, the government needs to take a strong stance in this issue and demand an a discussion with the Japanese in a bold and aggressive manner.

Week 10 : Soft Power

The rise of Korea’s soft power certainly is a positive sign. Soft power is as important as hard power in the sense it sinks into the lives of everyday people unconsciously and evokes a powerful sense of likability . Even if such strong feelings of likability are not created, just planting an awareness of a country and its cultural products is a powerful thing. Korea certainly has benefited a lot from soft power nowadays. However, the fact that the popularity of Korean culture is mainly due to the sudden rise of Psy’s “Gangnam-Style” instead of the long term efforts of the KCCA ( Korea Creative Contents Agency ) , an government agency which sole aim is to promote Korean culture globally, leaves much to desire for. Despite the fact that KCCA has actively been working since 1997, it has not yet yielded any significant accomplishments. The success of Gangnam-Style is proof that well made cultural content can achieve world wide acclaim regardless of a adequate platform but that does not excuse the lack of accomplishment of the KCCA. The KCCA needs to reform its current system into one that could sustain an environment where more cultural contents that appeal to the global market can be made, and properly be distributed.

Wedk 10: Subway Solution

As a solution for the subway situation , campaigns promoting awareness of pregnant women should be held nationwide. The campaigns could be about educating people about pregnancy badges and the purpose of the pink seats in the subway. Hopefully, more people will give up their seats when they see pregnant women while using public education.  Also, similar “pink” seats for pregnant women could be introduced in buses as well. Entire  train stalls dedicated for women could be made as well.
Furthermore, the problem in agism should be tackled aggressively. Social policies targeted specifically to elderly people should be made. Social benefits and pension for the elderly should be increased so the elderly could feel that they are cared for. Also, current policies in the Korean society should be modified to reflect changes in the aging Korean society such as the mandatory retirement age (55 years old). Hopefully, with the two solutions combined, the subway situation could be alleviated immensely.

201585003 Rina Shiiya
201202968 임정연 , Lim Jung Yun

Week 10 Rebuttal

Overall, I agree with your opinion that awareness of pregnant women should be raised. Many pregnant women are forced to stand while using public transportation while some even give up altogether and resort to driving. This is a hazardous to the health of pregnant women and should be addressed. However, I take issue in the fact that the overall cause of this situation is due to lack of awareness of pregnant women. As I have mentioned in my own critique of the article, the article’s main theme is about agism masquerading as fights over subway seats. Tension over subway seats is but a minor ripple caused by agism and more time should be focused on alleviating agism within Korean society.

Week 9: Subway Seats

The government’s approach to solving the problem in the given article is but a flimsy knee-jerk reaction that fails to address the fundamentals of the situation. Pregnancy badges and pink seats will not make a difference in helping pregnant women secure a seat in the subway. Of course, the badges could help people identify women in their early stage of pregnancy and the introduction of pink seats could encourage some people to leave the seat empty. But in the end, people who have gave up their seats for pregnant women would have done so regardless of the existence of the badges and seats.  Overall, the governments plan is ineffective in alleviating the problem that pregnant ladies are going through.

As the article has well pointed out, this situation is a problem about the elderly population in Korea masquerading as a problem about pregnant ladies not being able to sit in public transportation. The article only skims on this part, but the divide between the young and old generation is a great problem in Korea nowadays.  A large portion of the elder generation has been hardened by colonization, war, and tyranny and in the process some of them think for themselves and only themselves a little too much. That along with the fact that most of the elderly population is suffering from poverty and loneliness further aggravates the frustration they feel. The government needs to prioritize on revitalizing the older population, many of which are capable and eager to make a living, and treat them as a viable pillar of society. Giving them jobs, providing them with financial security and showing that they are cared for is the long-term remedy for this problem.

Midterm Essay : An Analysis of the Korean Government’s Strategy to Globalize Korean Cuisine and Why it has Failed.

An Analysis of the Korean Government’s Strategy to Globalize Korean Cuisine

and Why it has Failed.

It’s all about Kimchi. One of the major strategies that Korea has chosen to promote Korean food is to go on and on bragging about the history and science that Kimchi has. During 2009 till 2012, the Korean government spent a whopping amount of 931 billion won on promoting Korean food worldwide.[1] Despite all this effort, Kimchi, along with Korean food in general, is not popular or even well-known at all to the rest of the world. It is hard to find Korean restaurants among the plethora of Japanese, Chinese and even Vietnamese restaurants even in big cities such as London or New York. [2] This is because the Korean government’s strategy of food globalization is in its current state is extremely ineffective. Encouraging a positive image towards a country’s cuisine is important in that it helps create a favorable image towards that country which could further lead to people visiting that country, consuming its cultural products or even learning the language, all forms of soft power that contribute to strengthening national competitiveness. Korea’s food globalization plan in its current form can be categorized into three patterns: celebrity marketing, eccentric experimenting with Kimchi, and hosting Korean food festivals. This essay will proceed to analyze these three strategies and point out why these strategies are far from effective.

Korea’s current attitude towards globalizing Korean cuisine mostly focuses on being the talk of the town. Instead of promoting the proprieties of the food itself, such as the taste or healthiness, the main strategy is just to be the hot topic of the day and a large portion of it relies on celebrity marketing. During former president Lee Myung Bak’s administration, the government paid several Hollywood actresses such as Brook Shields 350 million won ( approximately 30 million dollars) each to be seen by the paparazzi picking out Korean food while grocery shopping .[3]  Later, the Korean government used the photographs to falsely report how these famous actresses enjoy cooking Korean food. [4]Not only is this false advertising, blatantly going on about how celebrities enjoy a certain food is not enough to persuade others to enjoy it , especially when there is little  mention about the food itself.

Kim,B.S. Brook Shields picking out Korean food while grocery shopping. 2011. Photograph.http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=001&aid=0005102338[20.10.2015]
False celebrity reports aside, a major problem of Korea’s current strategy is its obsession with eccentric Kimchi products. Kimchi is a salty, peppery-hot cabbage side dish that is fermented over a long period of time. Depending on the region, some people add pickled seafood or even raw fish to add a zesty flavor. Unfortunately, as an attempt to capture the attention of the foreign market, the government encourages extreme ludicrous experimentation with Kimchi. A few years ago, the Korean Tourism Organization came up with Kimchi based dessert dishes such as Kimchi flavored chocolate and Kimchi cocktails. Not only are the execution of these dishes unappealing, the taste of sweet chocolate and liquor do not clash well with the spicy taste of Kimchi.

“ The chocolate tasted waxy, and it was milk, not dark- boo. And the kimchi taste was dis-gust-ing. Think sour cooked cabbage in low-grade milk chocolate. Not a winner” (N.A, 2009)[5]

Such experiments certainly do manage to attract interest but rarely manage to form a regular customer group due to the eccentric taste. Blindly focusing on shocking ways to advertise Kimchi has turned it to a laughing stock rather than urging people to try it.

N.A. An image of a Kimchi chocolate. 2009.Photogaph. http://chocolatebythebay.com/magazine/outsidechocolate/chocolateroundtheworld/koreanchocolate/how-unusual-kimchi-chocolate/ [20.10.2015]

Currently, there are a lot of Korean food festivals of various scales promoting Korean food mostly funded by the government.[6] Most of these festivals have a thing in common; giant sized versions of Korean food. Whether it be Bibimbab (rice mixed with various vegetables), Japchae ( stir fried noodles), or Naeng Myeon ( cold buckwheat noodles), such festivals mostly end with  people serving food out of an enormous plate of food and serving it to foreigners, most of them who have seen Korean food for the very first time. It could push foreigners away from eating Korean food.[7]  When it comes to selling food, the execution of the food is almost as important as the High-end restaurants spend a lot of time on the plating of the food as much as the cooking itself. The reason is simple: If it does not look good, people do not want to taste it. An enormous plate of Bibimbab that can serve 300 people is certainly captures the interest of the public and is worthy of generating Guinness buzz. Whether it plants a positive view toward Korean food and actually makes people want to try though, is a whole different matter.

Lee,J.W. A photograph of a Korean food festival held in Atlanta.2014.

http://www.fnnews.com/news/201507081559052335

The aim of this paper is not to discredit Korean cuisine or suggest its inferiority compared to dishes from other countries. Korean cuisine has a lot of potential to achieve worldwide popularity but its incompetent attempts at promoting it is hurting what little reputation it already has in the global market. However, the incompetent strategy that is used to promote Korean food highly underpins these notions. As pointed numerous times within this essay, Korea’s current strategy in doing so is nothing short of ineffective. Instead, a new tactic promoting the merits and beauty of Korean food based on the unique features that it possesses should be formed. [8]Unfortunately, the Korea has been stubbornly clinging to this strategy for over a decade and shows no intention of adapting a new strategy. Regardless, there is no disagreeing that if apt the innate qualities that Korean cuisine carries is combined with the apt marketing, there is no reason preventing Korean food from achieving worldwide acclaim.

Bibliography

Chang, M. J., & Cho, M. S. (2000). Recognition and preference to Korean traditional food of foreign visitors in Korea. Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture, 15(3), 215-223.

Choi, J. A., & Lee, J. M. (2010). The Perception and Attitude of Food Experts in New York city toward Korean Food-Assessed by In-depth Interviews of. Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture, 25(2), 126-133.

Kim,B.S. (2011). Brook Shields loves Korean food. Retrieved from http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=001&aid=0005102338.

Kim,B.S. Brook Shields picking out Korean food while grocery shopping. 2011. Photograph.http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=001&aid=0005102338[20.10.2015].

Lee, E. J., Kim, T. H., & Kim, D. R. (2008). Globalization of Korean cuisine through the Korean food items promotion-focus on marketing strategy of Korean food items. Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture, 23(6), 729-736.

Lee,J.W. A photograph of a Korean food festival held in Atlanta.2014. http://www.fnnews.com/news/201507081559052335 .

Min, K. H. (2009). A study on cultivating Korean chefs for the globalization of Korean food. Korean journal of food and cookery science, 25(4), 506-512.
N.A. An image of a Kimchi chocolate.2009.Photogaph. http://chocolatebythebay.com/magazine/outsidechocolate/chocolateroundtheworld/koreanchocolate/how-unusual-kimchi-chocolate/ [20.10.2015].

Son,K.K. (2013). Lee Administration’s unwise spending on food globalization. Retrieved from http://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0100&key=20130622.22002214847.

[1] Son,K.K. (2013). Lee Administration’s unwise spending on food globalization. Retrieved from http://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0100&key=20130622.22002214847

[2] Choi, J. A., & Lee, J. M. (2010). The Perception and Attitude of Food Experts in New York city toward Korean Food-Assessed by In-depth Interviews of. Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture, 25(2), 126-133.

[3] Son,K.K. (2013). Lee Administration’s unwise spending on food globalization. Retrieved from http://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0100&key=20130622.22002214847

[4] Kim,B.S. (2011). Brook Shields loves Korean food. Retrieved from http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=001&aid=0005102338

[5] N.A. “How Unusual: Kimchi Chocolate.” 2009. Retrieved from http://chocolatebythebay.com/magazine/outsidechocolate/chocolateroundtheworld/koreanchocolate/how-unusual-kimchi-chocolate/

[6] Cho,Y.C (2015).Government devotes time and money revitalizing Korea’s tourism industry. Retrieved from http://www.fnnews.com/news/201507081559052335 .

[7] Chang, M. J., & Cho, M. S. (2000). Recognition and preference to Korean traditional food of foreign visitors in Korea. Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture, 15(3), 215-223.

[8] Min, K. H. (2009). A study on cultivating Korean chefs for the globalization of Korean food. Korean journal of food and cookery science, 25(4), 506-512