South Korea recollections, part two: something for everyone

This is the second part of a two-part series.

Last week after returning from Asia, I gave readers a pretty good idea of why political conservatives in the United States can embrace the South Korean miracle. In today’s column, you’ll see ample evidence that, while not exactly a socialist paradise, South Korea has much to offer liberals who favor government action to alleviate suffering and promote the common good.

One important measure of an advanced society is its literacy rate. South Korea clocks in at 99 percent, tied for 21st with the United States and North Korea, among several others, but behind Fidel Castro’s Cuba, which ranks second at 99.8 percent, according to a recent U.N. study. In 1945, only five years away from the devastating war that would divide its peninsula, Korea had a literacy rate estimated at a paltry 22 percent.

Education results are impressive, the students are focused and most public schools are well funded. Indeed, South Korea was the first nation in the world to provide high-speed Internet access to every primary, junior high and senior high school within its borders. However, in contrast to the United States, South Korea places a relatively weak emphasis on athletics, so those funds can be used for other educational purposes. The largest and most prestigious institution of higher learning, Seoul National University, is government-run from top to bottom.

South Korean tax rates are a mixed bag from the liberal point of view. Income tax rates are relatively high but corporate rates are moderate in order to encourage the investment and entrepreneurship necessary to generate revenues to pay for all those wonderful schools. But — and those on the left will like this — there is a 10 percent value added tax (a sort of sales tax added at every stage of production), as well as a progressive inheritance tax ranging from 10 to 50 percent, depending on the size of the estate.

There also appears to be a very solid social safety net. Apart from two or three drunks sleeping on park benches, I witnessed very little homelessness in the four major South Korean cities I visited. The welfare state not only takes care of those who are down on their luck, but it offers extensive services to young unwed mothers of modest means who choose to give birth. We visited one such home in Taegu where my own children’s birth mothers once stayed. I personally am grateful for the help these women-in-need received.

There is universal government-provided health care with better outcomes and at a lower cost per patient than we spend in the United States. But it is not clear whether the health care system is actually superior or if Koreans simply take better care of themselves. Judging from my own wanderings, Korean obesity is rare, whereas U.S. obesity rates run anywhere from 20 to 33 percent, depending on the state. Fattening American fast foods are widely available and Koreans like to indulge in them from time to time. But they always seem to return to traditional Korean cuisine, which features a delightful mix of mostly fruits, grains, vegetables and seafood.

Koreans are capable of tanning nicely. Yet almost everyone I saw took great pains to protect themselves from the sun. Americans provide an appalling study in contrasts: We pay good money to lie in coffins that bombard us with ultra-violet rays that cause skin cancer.

And it seems that Koreans get lots of exercise. While most live in or near cities with extensive public transportation systems, urban life still requires a good deal of walking. And those who live in rural areas invariably toil in agriculture or some other line of work that demands varying levels of physical exertion. Suburban subdivisions are virtually nonexistent. A drive out of Seoul, for example, reveals high-rise apartment buildings extending well out from the city, only to be replaced almost immediately by small farms with workers tending rice paddies, cabbage patches and plum orchards.

It is true that South Korea still has an emerging economy, but it’s no longer a low-wage country in which to do business. Labor unions and collective bargaining have been common for at least 30 years. And, aside from the National Assembly, where lawmakers have been known to engage in fisticuffs, South Korea has got to be the most polite place on earth. Even while our tour bus was stuck in traffic, for example, I can count on one hand the number of times I heard vehicles honking. And I did enough bowing and greeting (and received enough in return) to last a lifetime.

So there you have it. A utopia to satisfy right and left? Not exactly. Like most Asian countries, South Korea is still a very patriarchal society, its suicide rate is the highest in the industrial world, and they have been slow in fighting industrial pollution. But they do know how to make a buck and take care of their people at the same time. Not a bad combination.

Lakeville resident Terry Cowgill is a former editor and senior writer at The Lakeville Journal Company and host of Conversations With Terry Cowgill on CATV6. He can be reached at terrycowgill@gmail.com.