Comment by dba7dba | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dba7dba | Hacker News Reader

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How do you think S. Korea transformed from THE poorest nation on the planet after 1953 end of Korean War to top 10 - 15 nation in a 65 year period? Imagine, there are still people alive who were born in the poorest nation on the planet, and now living in a nation that is ranked 15th in GDP. South Korean passport is ranked 3rd most accepted, tied with Germany and France.

It wasn't because of natural resources or oil.

It wasn't any modern industry that just had to recover after the war such as Germany or Japan did. South Korea had NO modern industry of any kind, higher education institution, a modern workforce, effective government agencies, etc. S. Korea was literally a hell hole of a nation in 1953.

After the WTF period Koreans went through from 1910 to 1953 (after having had a 500 years long kingdom, the Chosun dynasty), South Korea just had to do what was necessary to survive.

And only way they saw how was producing a workforce to be productive. And no, Montessori method was not a viable option.

You don't have to be a highly educated non-Korean to see the education system is not quite right or wrong. Many highly educated and even not so highly educated people IN S. Korea know the question is valid to ask. Some want a change. Many who immigrated out of S. Korea to US and other nations list 2 reasons for leaving the nation, 1) conscription army and 2) the college entrance exam, the Suneung. But it was a system created at a time when there was no time to debate, but to act quickly to produce a workforce, just to survive as a nation. And it has delivered so far.

Yes the suicides are tragic. But consider this. Far more S. Koreans have died (including newborn, young, old) from lack of basic medical care in South Korea when only select few had access to modern medical care up until 1970's, 80's. The nation and citizens couldn't pay for it, for lack of wealth, from due to lack of skills needed by a modern workforce. But now that they can afford it, a nation wide medical care system is in place. Without educating the workforce (and yes the Suneung), they wouldn't have that luxury.

Easy for you to say they should be ashamed of that. I quite disagree.

It is somewhat relevant for this discussion that Suneung was established in 1994 and postdates most of economic growth of South Korea.

Before Suneung, there were equally, if not more, grueling college entrance exams. I think the point the commentor is trying to make is that this type of education has been the fuel for Korea's social and economic rise.

And note, historically, that under earlier Korean dynasties from 958 CE Korean elites like their counterparts in China vied for official posts through a grueling set of state exams, collectively known as the "gwageo". The median age of passing the final phase was around 35 years in age, and with a very low rate of passing (14600 passers between 1393-1894, among many millions of aspirants over the centuries) this effectively meant that most members of the elite class spent long decades mastering the complex Confucian canon and wide range of poetic forms required for success. Some passers were in their 70s.

Downvoters should reconsider; whether you agree with it or not, this comment is a valuable alternative point of view in the discussion.

South Korea transformed from the poorest nation to the richest not because of the trope that education was largely responsible and I don't discount that but it's far fetched to suggest that as a single cause.

After all, without Park Chung Hee's military dictatorship, without essentially enslaving 1/2 of the population as a glorified slave with the threat of violence, without handing over the destiny of millions of Koreans to the hands of the dozen family run corporate dynasties (aka chaebols), without the massacre and denial of reparations and the censure, capture, torture and killing of dissidents,

South Korea would not be as successful as it is.

Life in South Korea during the military dictatorship which lasted 2.5 generations, was just as hard if not oppressive like the North. If you read about the Gwangju Massacre (Korea's Tianmen Square), it's pretty clear that South Korea was virtually no different than North Korea in terms of political freedom.

This is the miracle of the Asian tigers - when you don't have natural commodity, the people become that commodity, expendable, something to be taken advantage of by people with capital.

May I polititely suggest that your assertion of equivalence between South Korea and North Korea in terms of political freedom during the Park and Chun years is overwrought nonsense. Just ask any South Korean who lived through this period or any American peace corps volunteer like me who lived in the countryside (near Gwangju in fact) in the 1970s under the Park regime and who studied in graduate school in Seoul under the Chun regime in the 1980s. The issues are complex and require long, nuanced elaboration, but in crude terms Park was all but a fascist in name during his dictatorship and Chun was largely a loutish thug. Park is remembered surprisingly fondly by his generation, while Chun is reviled. And it is true that political dissidents were brutally treated by both Park and Chun and that the 1980 Gwangju Massacre was a horrible incident for which Chun later went to prison. However, North Korea was much worse in its control, e.g. over all religious groups and intellectuals. If you had a bad class background ("seongbun") you had nil chance for any higher education or social advancement. And with the growing cult of personality of Kim Il Sung from the mid-1960s, virtually no one could hope to express openly any thoughts critical of Kim or the Worker's Party official party line. In sum, life in the south under Park was by turns comic and tiring (the whole nation was forced to arise at 6 am every day!) and under Chun disspiriting and at the margin dangerous, but in the north under Kim, little or no freedom of personal expression existed even between spouses. Just check out the personal accounts of those who lived through it.

people become that commodity, expendable, something to be taken advantage of by people with capital.

Around where I am, I see plenty of western corporations doing above, even with plenty of natural commodity to extract from.

And no, you simply cannot compare Park Chung Hee with Kim of North Korea to be equally dictatorial/brutal/etc. You simply lose all credibility when you make that assertion, while discussing Korean affairs.

Education was the single most important factor for S. Korea. And successful introduction of market based economy too, how ever troublesome it was. But without educated, competent workforce, nothing will work.

Also, you stated that S. Korea's wealth improved due to enslaving half of the population, and chaebols being given control over affairs in S. Korea.

What about N. Korea? N. Korea enslaved the entire population, with complete control that the chaebols of S. Korea can only dream about. And look where N. Korea is now. Practically a beggar state.

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