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[6th EAI Academy] ③ Welfare Policy Conflicts and Political Solutions: Why Did Korea Become an Unequal Welfare State?
Editor's Note
Professor Yoon Hong-sik of Inha University points out that the strategy to reduce reliance on skilled labor adopted by large corporations in the 1990s suppressed labor mobility between large and small and medium-sized enterprises, leading to inequality. He further notes that welfare state policies centered on social insurance focused on 'good jobs' such as regular employment, and thus failed to alleviate inequality. He suggests that it is necessary to move beyond the dichotomy of expanding welfare spending versus expecting trickle-down effects from growth, and to establish strategies that utilize welfare policies as drivers of innovation and growth through the provision of high-quality social services and the enhancement of human capital.
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oh5px5iYNs
■ Yoon Hong-sik, Professor of Social Welfare at Inha University.
Video Transcript
These paradoxical situations are occurring in Korea. Seven cats are circling around six chairs. Six cats can sit. Does the remaining one cat have the right to sit in this seat or not? Then what should be done? Right, we need to add more chairs. The act of adding chairs is the role of the state. And those additional chairs are social service jobs. But what society keeps saying is, and we are no different, is that if you keep circling around and if you work harder next time, you will get an opportunity. So try harder, get more qualifications. But if there are only six chairs, even if you train for 8 hours a day for 10 years, eating only chicken breast, salad, and sweet potatoes, there will be cats that cannot get a seat. That is not justifiable.
*This text is an AI translation of an original written in Korean. Some translations or nuances may be inaccurate.