[EDITORIALS]Accept responsibility

On its Web site yesterday, the Blue House said that the people should not get themselves into a “predicament” by “buying a house now at an expensive price.” It advised Koreans to “wait a bit.” It draws our attention that the Blue House is coming forward and being so kind as to give advice to the people on when to buy our houses. We’d like to ask, however, if it is going to take the responsibility if housing prices go up further while we wait.
This administration has been claiming for the past few years that it would place a firm rein on housing prices, if nothing else. About 30 times, it has announced policies to stabilize the housing market, but at the end of the day, housing prices have kept on rising. Regarding the continuing increase in housing prices and the instability of the real estate market, the Blue House has of recent begun blaming what it calls “real estate forces.” Those real estate forces, according to the Blue House, are construction companies, real estate brokers, financial organizations and the media, among others. In other words, it is saying that the government made good policies, but that the market is unstable because it is being pressured by these powers. We have never heard the government saying that it is responsible for the failure of its policies.
Local media said that the government’s announcement on its construction plans to continuously create new satellite “towns” such as Geomdan were sidetracked to a policy to expand housing. The government retorted that it did promise more housing back in its Aug. 31 policy and that the media was distorting the facts. It is difficult, however, to find cases in which policies for expanding supply were executed at the time policies for restricting demand were being enforced.
The Blue House is also trying to divide the people into two sides ― real estate speculators and others. A house is a major purchase to most people. Therefore, trying to expand on one’s fortune based on one’s house is a universal economic act of a normal person. Surely the Blue House is not trying to categorize the entire population as speculators?
As the Blue House itself claims, economics is psychological. Therefore if the people’s sentiments are not reflected in government policies, those policies are failures. The success of policies are evaluated strictly on results. Saying “I did a good job but it failed because of someone else” is a childish excuse.
What the Blue House needs to do is frankly apologize for its failed real estate policies and establish a plan that truly reflects people’s sentiments.