On the first of February, two brothers jumped off of a building together. They fell to their deaths- with cold winter winds biting into their faces- all for one simple reason: poverty.
The story is rather simple and terribly sad. As the siblings’ parents had passed away when they were not yet ten, the boys had to take care of each other. Unfortunately, the younger brother(Myung-Gyun Shin) had schizophrenia* and had to be given special care. While the rest of the family- the siblings’ older brother and sister and concerned aunts and uncles- insisted that the younger brother be institutionalized, the older brother(Pu-Ru-Reum Shin) protested vehemently and refused to admit him to a mental hospital. They had been living together for 28 years ever since.
As he was needed to take care of his younger brother, Pu-Ru-Reum Shin was not able to complete his education and was forced to work menial jobs from an early age. They got by the skin of their teeth; even with their hand-to-mouth lifestyle, there were hospital bills and rent to pay. Problems arose, however, a few years ago. Due to recession, the job market, especially for low-paying jobs (the older Shin operated construction machines), became very shallow. With only a middle school education, Mr. Shin was unable to get any high-paying jobs, and to add fuel to fire, the younger Shin needed to be hospitalized as his symptoms became worse. Driven out of the house and having nowhere to go, they settled down in a small government-sanctioned apartment meant for beggars and had to live off of government aid as they could not get any jobs. Even this money, however, was gone after paying rent and hospital bills. The financial constraints led the older brother to make an extreme decision: suicide. Only leaving behind a letter saying “I cannot look after my brother anymore. I am sorry,” a few cheap children’s books and some instant ramen packets, the two brothers jumped off of the thirteenth floor of their apartment building, concluding this heart-rending tale.
What would have happened had the brothers received more monetary aid from the government? Due to the elections-both congressional and the presidential- being close by, the politicians are feeling the need to make extravagant promises to the public. Of course, what most appeals to the masses is “benefits”. So far, the politicians has made lunch free for all schoolchildren. There are now talks of free breakfast, higher wages for people obligatorily drafted into the army, and other social welfare programs for everyone. Yes, everyone. Politicians are getting into verbal fights about who will contribute to better lives for everyone. These promises are serious problems, both in its feasibility and its wastefulness.
Social benefits come from taxes. People of Korea- who already pay an enormous amount of tax each year- are clamoring for more welfare benefits and less tax. This is an equation that will never work: for more social benefit, we will either need to become like Sweden with its giant tax systems, or like Greece went bankrupt due to the government’s increasing debt as the citizens refused to pay more tax and yet rioted for more welfare. Both are undesirable fates for Korea. The other concern, the wastefulness of the new proposals, is the more pressing matter.
Welfare, by definition, means “a broad discourse which may hold certain implications regarding the provision of a minimal level of well-being and social support for all citizens. (Wikipedia)” This means that all citizens, no matter how needy, will benefit from the new policies. For instance, with the newly initiated Free Lunch for Students program, the kid who lives in a penthouse and rides a Ferrari will be getting the same level of aid as the kid who lives in the gutter with his sick grandmother. This by itself would not be so much of a trouble if two children had not been required to pay the same amount of tax. What would happen if all the welfare policies that the election candidates are proposing actually become real? The rich would get services they do not really require while the poor would be paying for their services from their own pockets. The better thing to do, in this case, would be to take the taxes and try to make life better for the poor, giving them greater assistance and much-needed basic relief.
Now, back to the question: what would have happened had the brothers received more monetary aid from the government? Nobody can be sure. It can be assumed, however, that they would have been considerably more inclined to choose life over death. Perhaps the only way to prevent such an unfortunate event from happening again is to cut back on “small benefits for everyone” and lend our hands to the truly needy.
*a mental disease in which the patient has more than one “identity” inside his or her mind
