LEE 1

Woo. S. LEE
Vincent Gilhooley
English composition 2
26/05/2016
The price of inequality
These days, rich people become a richer and poor people become a poorer. Middle
class has become lock, and stop becoming upper class or low class. Also the gap between
income levels of different classes is getting wider and wider specifically between middle
class and upper class. You can see a poverty gap and rate. The poverty rate is the ration of the
number of people (in a given age group) whose income falls below the poverty line; taken as
half the median household income of the total population. As you see a graph derived from
the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), poverty rate of
Korea is sixth highest in. These facts affect the Education, Democracy and Constitutionalism.
The most important thing is income.

LEE 2

Weight of private education is bigger to receive a admission from the private

elementary school, international middle school, science high school, foreign language high
school and famous university, which are called Success Course. Also possibility which is
getting a high-income job increases when they enter the Success Course quickly.
According to survey, 43% of SNU (Seoul National University) medical school freshman and
38% of SNU law freshman have replied that he was from the upper class(Stiglitz 16). The
Frist graph is about SNU freshman of ordinary high school graduate of Seouls main State.
Second graph is about rate which is entrance ration of Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa, which
is the expensive state of Seoul. Third graph is number of freshman of ordinary high school
student. It shows inequality of education. High school student who has rich parents and lives
in rich town can go SNU more easily than the other student. Third graph means specialized
high school student such as foreign high school or science high school goes better at SNU
than ordinary high school student.

LEE 3

According to the received submission from Seoul National University, which is the Seoul
National University Law School entrants report from high school and college status, 938
people (87.4%) of the 1073 entrants are from Seoul National University, Korea University
and Yonsei University. Also nearly 167 entrants (overall 15.6% people) were concentrated in
Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa.

This is about the expenditure of private education that depends on income level, which is
derived from Statistical Office of Korea. In particular, the most important thing is bigger gap
than in 2005. This phenomenon gradually is serious.

LEE 4

Angus Deaton who won the Nobel Prize in Economic said in interview with Gail
Fosler Group that what worries me most about income inequality is that it can turn into
political inequality. If the very wealthy use their wealth to influence the political process, then
the rest of us suffer. That is the danger. People who are healthy arent going to undermine the
health of the unhealthy. But the super-rich can undermine the political process to their own
benefit and harm the rest of us. Studies show that politicians are much more responsive to
their rich constituents than their poor constituents. As you see, famous economist worries
about Democracy. Poor people dont vote because they express disappointment about
economic inequality and politic as abstention. Also it needs to have a time and effort to vote
or go to the polls. According to report Chung-Ang University professor Sin-Gang-Young
shows in a study, abstention rate between 1,000,000won and 1,990,000 in income level is
30.54% but abstention rate between 5,000,000won and 6,990,000 in income level is 23%. It
is sure poor people dont vote. If this situation we need to attract voters who fell into
political disillusionment to the polls increases, the cost of voting behavior increases. The
more political disillusionment of voter increases the more voting cost increase. But the more
voting cost increase, the more power of money increase. Rich people consider voting as
invest to achieve revenue by voting. As a result, they make political process which is for rich
people and then they make the other voter have disillusionment of politic and reinforce the
power of money (Stiglitz238). Also member of congress cant maintain the neutrality
because Parliamentarians receive funding from political entrepreneurs or rich people. So they
make law or rules for rich people or entrepreneurs. Finally these results make the democracy
weak and this phenomenon makes not one person one vote but one person multiple votes,
which have substantial many prices.
The core of rule of law is presumption of innocence until proved guilty and is that all

LEE 5

men are equal before the law. Right rule of law must protect the weak. Invalid rule of law can
function to maintain and intensify inequality. To act justice system, it needs to assign lawyer.
Actually the sentence and range of guilty is decided by lawyer. There is a privilege, which is
granted the privileges of ones former post. But to employ the lawyer who can act a privilege,
it needs much money. The people who can pay much money, in other words, top 1% people
want to make reduced sentence or innocence paying much money. For example, CEO of the
Nature Republic which is the cosmetic company employs the lawyer who has a privilege
paying much money. According to newspaper, a CEO gives his lawyer 5,000,000,000won to
reduce the sentence and then the lawyer. If the persons behavior gives someone the benefits,
it is called positive externality and if the persons behavior gives someone the damage, it is
called negative externality in economics. When we have damage from someones behavior,
we must use justice system. But it costs a lot of money and time to use justice system. So
some companies are exploiting it. For example, Samsung electronics fight with labors having
Acute Leukemia while they were working on Semiconductor line. According to news, the
court acknowledged her disease as an industrial accident. But Samsung didnt recognize for 9
years and labors having dieses while they were working couldnt receive compensation for
9years.
Economic inequality can make many bad things additionally I dont advert. But
already bad things are happened in Education, Democracy and Constitutionalism. So we have
to three things. First one is narrowing the income level. According to KBS news (Korea
broad casting System), OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
has proposed a reduction about labor cost gap between regular and non-regular workers in
Korea, which is the challenge of the labor market. Report of OECD said that solidified dual
structure of the labor market caused income inequality in Korea. Second thing is improving

LEE 6

access to education and especially improving quality on public education. Third thing is to
facilitate the access of ordinary people to justice system and give up their own privilege by
themselves. Forth thing is to expand the passage of information or oblige vote to expand the
vote rate of low class. Fifth thing is to change the economic policy. Give more money to the
top-tier growth to accelerate the economic growth. So everyone will receive its benefits. That
is the trickle-down economics (Stiglitz 88). But as you know, most of people are looking
reduction or stagnant income level. Finally we have to change economic policy from the
trickle-down economics to trickle-up economics which is focused on division of profits or
distribution of wealth. trickle-up economics can make effect. If income of low class and
middle class increases, even upper class, we can receive more benefits (Stiglitz89).

Works cited

OECD (2016), Poverty rate (indicator). doi: 10.1787/0fe1315d-en (Accessed on 26 May

2016)
Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Price of Inequality:. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
Lee, Sang-kyung. "Admission to the Prestigious Universities Is League of Wealthy."
Hankookilbo. N.p., 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 24 May 2016.
<http://www.mt.co.kr/view/mtview.php?type=1&no=2016050410450016049&outlink=1>.
" Seoul National University Law School entrants who looked at ... 9 out of 10 is from SKY
(SKY)." Seoul National University Law School entrants who looked at ... 9 out of 10 is from
SKY (SKY): News : DongAdotcom. DongAilbo, 7 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 May 2016.
<http://news.donga.com/3/all/20151006/74036534/1>.

LEE 7

Expenditure of Private Education. Digital image. Statistical Office of Korea, 5 Sept. 2015.
Web. 25 May 2016. <http://blog.naver.com/cjswognels/220663175722>.
"Inequality and Rent-seeking: An Interview With Angus Deaton." Interview by Rebecca
Rolfes. The Gail Fosler Group, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 May 2016.
Jin-won, Song. "Billion Won despite of Defense Only by Phone." Yonhapnews. N.p., 22 May
2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
<http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2016/05/21/0200000000AKR20160521032700004.H
TML?input=1195m>.
Dong-woo, Jang, and Choi Ji-nyung. "Samsung Leukemia Controversial Issue to 'solution
Phase'" Yonhapnews. N.p., 12 Jan. 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
<http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2016/01/12/0200000000AKR20160112189500797.H
TML?input=1195m>.
Jun-soo, Eun. "OECD "regular-irregular Workers Must Reduce the Wage Gap."" KBS. N.p.,
16 May 2016. Web. 25 May 2016. <http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?
ncd=3279911&ref=A>.
"The Reason Poor People Vote." Http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion/editorial/739196.html.
N.p., 11 Apr. 2016. Web. 24 May 2016.