Regression to an unequal society?

Has our society become a place where people can openly say, “I dream of an unequal world”?

YOON SUNG-MINThe author is a political news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo. A residential and commercial complex designed by world-renowned architect Richard Meier will be built in Seocho-gu, Seoul in 2027. It is named “The Palace 73.” 73 means the building will have only 73 households. The sale price for each unit ranges from 10 billion won ($7.7 million) to 40 billion won. As of April, the average sale price of apartments in Seoul was 1.022 billion won.

When the sale began recently, its advertisement slogan was controversial. “Dedicated to you who always dream of an unequal world.” It was criticized as an example of “pariah capitalism” and “mammonism.” The website crashed.

Advertisement targets a public desire. In a 2001 commercial, actress Kim Jeong-eun shouted, “Everyone, be rich.” For a while, the phrase was used as a pep talk in Korean society.

It was at the end of the financial crisis and the time when people dreamed of becoming rich after the economic collapse. It is ironic that the advertisement was for a credit card company encouraging short-term debt. Reckless credit card issuance led to the credit card crisis in 2002, which resulted in millions of delinquent cases. The bubble to become “rich” inflated by debt burst soon.

The advertisement for The Palace 73 also targets public desire. Social polarization intensified with the pandemic, and the desire to go to the upper end of the unequal society grew. On YouTube, it is easy to find countless videos showing the houses of the wealthy.

In Korea, the primary symbol of the rich is the home. It is different from how the European upper class distinguish themselves from other classes through their tastes.

Economists Kevin Kofi Charles and Erik Hurst studied the differences in wealth and spending between black and white people. Black people had a tendency of spending more money on cars than white people of similar income.

In counter reaction to social discrimination, they tend to spend more on visible assets. It seems that wealthy Koreans like to show off houses as a result of condensed growth.

Nevertheless, as seen in the criticism on social media, the advertisement for The Palace 73 makes people uncomfortable. It’s been ten years since the publication of “We Support Discrimination,” a book about those in their 20s taking inequality for granted.

Has our society become a place where people can openly say, “I dream of an unequal world”? Justice is not an outcome of reason or instinct but a product of evolution, according to David Hume. I seriously wonder if Korean society is regressing.