A leader who always betrays our expectations

The Rebuilding Korea Party led by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk announced its novel commitments to make the country “advanced in terms of social rights” and establish a “seventh republic.” The social rights he referred to include housing rights, child care and education rights, health rights, working rights and the same wage for the same work, solely based on social solidarity.

What attracts our attention is the wage system aimed at offering tax benefits to large companies that lower their wages for employees, while the government raises wages for small and mid-size companies. But Cho’s argument for the strange wage system has many problems. First of all, the idea of a state intervening in determining wages to strike a balance between large and small companies goes against the principle of market economy. Large companies and small ones cannot but have different characteristics and work environments, not to mention a wage gap among large companies.

Wages are paid in proportion to workers’ performance and contribution. If the government meddles in fixing wages in the name of a “grand compromise” and encourages large firms to lower them, that’s sheer nonsense. Employees at large companies receive high salary due to strong demands from combative unions. Cho skipped that part.

We are living in an era of fierce global competition in which companies’ swift judgment can determine a country’s future. We are dumbfounded at Cho’s party platforms designed to frustrate employees of big companies instead of boosting their morale. But such a party is gaining popularity ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections. Is this normal?

Sweden introduced the solidarity wage system in 1956. But at that time, the country had labor unions by industry, which allowed adjusting of wage and working conditions for all workers in the same industry. The Swedish government, unions and employers also maintained a friendly relationship. Nevertheless, Sweden abandoned its unique wage system in 1983 after small companies went bankrupt one after another after failing to bear their rising labor cost. We wonder why Cho wants to reintroduce the archaic wage system which failed even in a country with a drastically different labor market from ours.

In 2012, Cho wrote on social media, “Everyone cannot become a dragon, nor is there any need for that. More important than that is creating a society where all can live a happy life even though they cannot fly like a dragon.” He made campaign promises in the same context. But everybody knows that he used a series of off-track and substandard methods to help his children get admitted to top universities. He was already sentenced to two years in jail in lower courts. How could he make such campaign pledges now?