3 ms·

If it were actually efficient we'd see less issues. I'd say the Korean economy is hyper-competitive but fairly inefficient. Lots of social problems because pe

If it were actually efficient we'd see less issues. I'd say the Korean economy is hyper-competitive but fairly inefficient. Lots of social problems because people who secured a nice, well-paying job don't want competitions and will do everything to block others from getting the same job. All the way from lawyers limiting the number of lawyers, to doctors doing the same thing, to full-time factory workers discriminating against part-time workers in the same factory. So (1) there are fewer and fewer decent jobs, and (2) once you fall off the "correct career path" for any reason, there's no way to get back, or at least that's the universal perception. So everybody fights tooth and nail to keep whatever they already have, which further distorts the market, and the cycle continues. Disclaimer: have been living in the US since 2011, so my understanding is from reading news and stuff.

skissane 4y ago
> If it were actually efficient we'd see less issues. I'd say the Korean economy is hyper-competitive but fairly inefficient. I remember once visiting the head office in Seoul of a major South Korean firm – they had a rather large development team working on some rather quotidian internal corporate needs (identity management, corporate intranet/portal, etc). And yet, they were being subjected to the kind of limitations one would expect only on some classified national security project – e.g. Internet access blocked so they couldn't access StackOverflow/etc, personal electronic devices had to be put in lockers at the building security desk, etc. The restrictions were very obviously impeding their productivity. It appeared that the company's management was very paranoid about corporate espionage, to a degree which seemed out of place given the actual business this company did. A Korean colleague told me that a lot of South Korean companies were like that. His theory was that senior management at many firms is dominated by retired military officers, who take from their military background a culture of secrecy which may well be justified in the military, defence contractors, super-high-tech firms such as leading-node semiconductor fabrication, etc–but isn't appropriate for your average business, and this particular firm wasn't doing anything like that. What do I know, but his theory seemed plausible to me.

skissane 4y ago

> If it were actually efficient we'd see less issues. I'd say the Korean economy is hyper-competitive but fairly inefficient. I remember once visiting the head office in Seoul of a major South Korean firm – they had a rather large development team working on some rather quotidian internal corporate needs (identity management, corporate intranet/portal, etc). And yet, they were being subjected to the kind of limitations one would expect only on some classified national security project – e.g. Internet access blocked so they couldn't access StackOverflow/etc, personal electronic devices had to be put in lockers at the building security desk, etc. The restrictions were very obviously impeding their productivity. It appeared that the company's management was very paranoid about corporate espionage, to a degree which seemed out of place given the actual business this company did. A Korean colleague told me that a lot of South Korean companies were like that. His theory was that senior management at many firms is dominated by retired military officers, who take from their military background a culture of secrecy which may well be justified in the military, defence contractors, super-high-tech firms such as leading-node semiconductor fabrication, etc–but isn't appropriate for your average business, and this particular firm wasn't doing anything like that. What do I know, but his theory seemed plausible to me.