President Moon Jae-in is giving a greeting at a conference inviting the leadership of the Democratic Party in the Blue House on the 19th. News 1
“If it comes to escape from the corona (a novel coronavirus infection), we can review the payment of support funds to comfort the people and support money to fight people’s morale.”
This is what President Moon Jae-in said at a meeting between the ruling party leadership and the Blue House on the 19th. If it’s comforting, it’s good to be happy, but it doesn’t seem to sound like pure comfort. Points poured out all over the weekend.
“You are going to give the people the money you collected from taxes to comfort the whole people. The basic of fiscal expenditure is that the blood-like tax should be saved as much as possible and used in a highly effective place, so that the effect should be greater than when the people originally spent it with the money. If it’s a misunderstanding, the President and staff gather private funds and ask for consolation to the people.” (Counselor Hee-sook Yoon)
“Can the President’s personal money be used like this? Isn’t it strange that you comfort me with my taxes? That’s why it’s like hearing about the act of ticketing ahead of the election.” (Yoo Seung-min, former member of the Future Integration Party)
The reason the point was poured out was that it did not meet the’consolation requirements’. First, it is a question of what comforts you. In response to Corona 19, it is a situation where the purpose of’emergency money’ has been used. In the future, almost all of the subsidies should be filled by issuing deficit government bonds.
The situation in the country is not good enough. At the end of this year, the national debt based on the budget is 956 trillion won. Dankook University economics professor Kim Tae-gi said, “The national debt that was 660 trillion won at the time the Moon Jae-in administration was inaugurated will surpass 1,000 trillion won this year.”
The timing of mentioning consolation was also inappropriate. President Moon mentioned the people’s consolation money under the premise that “when it comes to escape from corona (a novel coronavirus infection)”. However, the end of Corona 19 (at the level of 70% of collective immunity) is still far away. According to the government’s plan, even if 90% of the people are vaccinated without a hitch, it should be at least in November of this year. Shin Se-don, a professor of economics at Sookmyung Women’s University, said, “There are many criticisms about vaccination that are late compared to advanced countries.” did.
Above all, the’effect’ is questionable whether it can comfort the whole people. According to the National Statistical Office’s’Family Trends Survey for the 4th Quarter of 2020′, last year’s disaster subsidies were released over 22 trillion won, but the income gap in the fourth quarter widened. The quintile ratio of disposable income, a representative distribution indicator, was 4.72, up from a year ago (4.64).
I looked only at the’transfer income’, including the disaster subsidy, to see if the distribution gap was narrowed (which would have widened) thanks to the disaster subsidy. Then, while the transfer income of households in the first quintile (lower 20% of income) increased 16.5%, the number of households in the fifth quintile (upper 20% of income) increased 36.3%. It means that people who are in good health received more disaster support than those who suffered a livelihood from Corona 19. This is why voices insisting on selective payments rather than payments to the public, whose economic effect is unclear.
The party government is discussing the payment of the 4th screening disaster support fund. However, even the President suddenly ignited the 5th round of discussions on the payment of consolation funds for the whole people. The consolation seldom sounds pure because the by-election of the Mayor of Seoul and Busan in April is on the verge. Anyone can consolation, but sincerity is the problem.
Reporter Kim Ki-hwan, Economic Policy Team