ID :
190787
Fri, 06/24/2011 - 02:18
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/190787
The shortlink copeid
Income inequality
(Yonhap) - Almost one in two senior citizens lives in a poor household in Korea, the host country of the G20 summit last year. The poverty rate of 45 percent is three times the OECD average. Among older people, the poverty rate increases to 70 percent when there is no income from work, the highest level in the OECD.
Surprising is that the nation was the ninth highest in 2006 in the relative poverty rate in the OECD. The rate, standing at 14.4 percent, was measured as the proportion of people who lived on less than half the median income.
The OECD data does not cover the period of the Lee Myung-bak administration.
It says Korea stands out as one of the few OECD countries in which older people are much more likely than the rest of the population to be poor.
The poverty risk of the elderly was three times higher than that of the general population in the mid-2000s.
The country has seen the rise in the poverty rate among the elderly at a time when most OECD countries have seen a considerable reduction in recent decades.
Korea's income inequality is just below the OECD average. The Paris-based organization reported that the GINI coefficient was 0.306 for Korea, just below the OECD average of 0.315.
The organization said Korea is confronting a serious challenge of improving income equality in the context of a severe demographic transition. Such a shift, from one of the youngest populations in the OECD at present to the second oldest by 2050, may call for the need for more public spending and slower economic growth.
It says that Korea's income inequality further pushes down the birth rate in the absence of measures designed to reduce high private education expenses and the high proportion of non-regular workers.
Korea's level of social spending is among the lowest in the OECD. It stresses Korea???s need to adopt measures to improve both growth and equality for social cohesion.
As a way of increasing social spending, it says Korea has room for hiking value added tax and taxes on the self-employed.
It noted the lowest quintile is paying relatively more taxes than in many other OECD countries. It also proposed the relaxation of the eligibility requirements for those receiving assistance under the Basic Livelihood Security System.
The OECD calls for well-targeted benefit programs for the needy, including people aged over 65.
The poor and older people are not well organized enough to hold candlelight protests to press for better living conditions. But if left unchecked, they will become the most seriously unstable elements in society.
The government and the National Assembly should set priorities in allocating funds to cut the income gap.
The OECD says Korea's social spending accounts for 7.5 percent of its GDP, well below the OECD average of 20 percent. But it adds that its social spending grew at the fastest rate among OECD countries from 2000 to 2007.
Surprising is that the nation was the ninth highest in 2006 in the relative poverty rate in the OECD. The rate, standing at 14.4 percent, was measured as the proportion of people who lived on less than half the median income.
The OECD data does not cover the period of the Lee Myung-bak administration.
It says Korea stands out as one of the few OECD countries in which older people are much more likely than the rest of the population to be poor.
The poverty risk of the elderly was three times higher than that of the general population in the mid-2000s.
The country has seen the rise in the poverty rate among the elderly at a time when most OECD countries have seen a considerable reduction in recent decades.
Korea's income inequality is just below the OECD average. The Paris-based organization reported that the GINI coefficient was 0.306 for Korea, just below the OECD average of 0.315.
The organization said Korea is confronting a serious challenge of improving income equality in the context of a severe demographic transition. Such a shift, from one of the youngest populations in the OECD at present to the second oldest by 2050, may call for the need for more public spending and slower economic growth.
It says that Korea's income inequality further pushes down the birth rate in the absence of measures designed to reduce high private education expenses and the high proportion of non-regular workers.
Korea's level of social spending is among the lowest in the OECD. It stresses Korea???s need to adopt measures to improve both growth and equality for social cohesion.
As a way of increasing social spending, it says Korea has room for hiking value added tax and taxes on the self-employed.
It noted the lowest quintile is paying relatively more taxes than in many other OECD countries. It also proposed the relaxation of the eligibility requirements for those receiving assistance under the Basic Livelihood Security System.
The OECD calls for well-targeted benefit programs for the needy, including people aged over 65.
The poor and older people are not well organized enough to hold candlelight protests to press for better living conditions. But if left unchecked, they will become the most seriously unstable elements in society.
The government and the National Assembly should set priorities in allocating funds to cut the income gap.
The OECD says Korea's social spending accounts for 7.5 percent of its GDP, well below the OECD average of 20 percent. But it adds that its social spending grew at the fastest rate among OECD countries from 2000 to 2007.
