[OUTLOOK]Jobs, jobs, jobs - create more jobs

Last year, our biggest problem was unemployment. Finding or keeping a job became a problem for almost every household. Fathers worried about getting cut from their jobs and children worried about finding jobs after graduating from school.
Colleges were also affected. Now, any department with “education” in its title has become the most popular department of a school because teachers are guaranteed jobs until their retirement age.
With the situation thus, the government should be concentrating on creating new jobs. The new government must look back carefully on last year to see what it has done to help create jobs.
I am a man of many tears. My eyes get teary when I see a sad or a distressing scene. I also often shed tears of gratitude. President Roh Moo-hyun is also a man of many tears. Much has been said about his tears, but I prefer a man of many tears than a man of none.
President Roh appealed to the public because of his heart. The president cried when he invited mailmen and janitors to the Blue House. But these men do have decent jobs that they can be proud of.
The president should shed tears not for these men but for the young people who are unable to find jobs or the mother who threw herself from her apartment with her children because she couldn’t pay her debts. Perhaps the president is indeed crying for them in private.
But outwardly, there seem to be more times when the president cries for the members of Nosamo, his personal fan club. One reason our society is in such distress right now is because of these tears the president shed for Nosamo. The tears that he shed in front of his supporters sporting yellow scarves around their necks at a rally in Yeouido in sub-zero weather were not tears shed because of a warm heart. The gist of the president’s speech at the rally was, “I tried my best but ‘they’ wouldn’t let me, so let’s drive them out through a civil revolution.”
The tears the president shed in front of the Nosamo members were tears of resentment. Resentment leads not to creation but to destruction. It takes one into the past, not forward. It makes one concentrate on revenge, not forgiveness.
What is the reason our society has become torn to pieces right now? Why, since the new administration took office, must we fight with bloodshot eyes every day? The president’s tears should be shed because the economy is bad, the unemployment rate is rising and investment is declining. They should not be tears for Nosamo or tears of disgruntlement and resentment but tears shed in frustration for the future of our country.
They should be tears for the weak and helpless who are suffering in every part of our society. They should not be tears of momentary pity but tears that should breed results.
If the president’s tears change thus, we as a society could once again overcome our strife and become united. If we united as one, we could rise again. There is only one goal. Save the economy and create jobs. This is no time to set many minor goals.
All of the president’s words and deeds must be focused on this goal. All of the government’s efforts must be concentrated on this goal.
It is said that when U.S. President Ronald Reagan pursued reform in education, he sent out the same message for over three months. He was reportedly so sick of repeating the same thing that he threw his speech notes in front of his aides and declared that he was not making “this boring speech” again.
But the repetition worked, and the American public was persuaded. We must repeatedly sing the praises of new jobs as we repeatedly sang songs for our Saemaeul movement of rural improvements in the 1970s.
The most important actors in our new movement are companies. “The people who stock your shelves and create jobs for you are neither the administration nor the Communist Party. They are the businesses.” That is the secret of capitalism that President George H. Bush told Soviet leaders when he visited Moscow in 1991. We must create an atmosphere where the businesses of our country can pursue new ventures boldly, free of jealous eyes.
I have only one wish for the new year. I hope that there are no more people who will shed tears because they have no jobs or because they are suffering from economic problems. For this wish to come true, we must start uniting our hearts.

* The writer is the chief editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

by Moon Chang-keuk