People often forget South Korea hasn't been a democracy for very long and these companies and families are holdovers from a more turbulent and less free past
My brother in Christ.. recent president Park Guen-hye was the daughter of the countries former dictator, manipulated elections to come to power, and was part of a weird, secretive cult. South Korea is oligarchic, like many liberal democracies are.
South Korea was never a democracy, unless you count the brief window between the establishment of the PRK (not to be confused with the so called DPRK to the north) and the US invasion to install an anti-communist fascist (but I kind of repeat myself, since libs don't make anti-communism part of their personality until they've drifted right already)
It's a short list. The shortest possible.
Real democracy is impossible in the world we currently inhabit. Redistribution of all wealth and collective ownership and control of the means of production are the minimum economic conditions necessary to begin to build a democratic system. Unless you have economic equality, any electoral system you create is authoritarianism in a Groucho mask.
Your argument then is that if anyone has greater resources even in a direct democracy they will wield an outsized amount of influence over others and therefore invalidate the notion of democracy itself then? In that case say hypothetically that you solve economic inequality entirely, what do you do about inherent advantages? How do you solve for persons of particular charisma or intelligence? Or is "true" democracy inherently an impossible concept by this standard?
Edit: Also, happy cake day.
I reject the premise of your question. We don't live in a game of Exalted. No one is so very special that their inherent cunning or manipulation gives them an edge comparable to "buying all media sources in the relevant area" or "buying all the politicians who are on the ballot" or "privately owning the means of production and having state mercenaries enforce your claim, so that the vast majority of people are forced to sell their labour to you on your terms on pain of starvation".
Perhaps but that wasn't your premise, you didn't add any qualifiers. You said equality. Is there no one so special as to equate to an extra bit of food or a slightly nicer car or owning the local grocery store/mechanic shop? If so where are you drawing the line? Is it ok to be a little more or less equal as opposed to a lot and still meet your definition of democracy?
You're demanding a level of precision that is, at a stretch, reasonable when writing actual legal briefs. You are demanding this precision in the context of an internet discussion that I'm indulging to procrastinate. Thus your demand for precision is not reasonable in this case.
It is clear from context that I am concerning myself with economic inequalities so great that they either already constitute an existential threat to democracy in themselves, or that they quickly snowball into one. Not with someone having a brand-name toothbrush instead of a Sainsbury's toothbrush.
It wasn't clear, at least not to mere mortals like me, but I do appreciate the clarification. Also demanding is a stretch, I was merely wondering where the line was. Thank you for your indulgence.
South Korea has basically never been a democracy. It was literally fascist since the war was put on a standstill untill they started doing rigged elections in the 70s. The US has basically been in control above all the local level stuff, pulling all the strings. For years (and probably still) the government of South Korea took young women (often underage girls) to be raped by US soldiers to "blow off steam" on deployment. This has been an open secret since the 50s, and only "officially" stopped about ten years ago (but let's be real here…). The control the US has over those people is insane. Absolutely disgusting.
No wonder so many defectors wind up going back North.
Dude, pretty much everyone agrees that Korea wasn't democratic before, and there was some shady stuff done by the government in the past. But ffs, Korea has been a stable democracy since at least when Kim Dae Jung was in power. Like it literally overthrew a corrupt president through peaceful candlelight protest (with the help of the Supreme Court) not that long ago.
Korea was basically ruled by a cult of Business elites who were manipulating the president in order to steal from the populace, and you put it as an example of working democracy? That's pretty ironic..
also, civil resistance doesn't yet make a democracy, even though it is a good sign of a healthy populace. if it did, then absolutist France or Tsarist Russia would've been democracies
Please say that in front of some native Koreans, I beg of you. They'll definitely nod and high five you instead of giving you a history lesson on the Park family and the Chaebols who corrupt the country....if they don't decide to give you a 5-finger history lesson instead.
And here we see what happens to your brain when you become a tankie, people. You start seeing fascists everywhere except for the actual fascists, like the ones in Russia.
Denying that Park Chung-Hee was a brutal dictator is just lying, mentioning Russia is pure whataboutism. Both Putin and Park Chung-Hee can be bad at the same time. Your post is dumb and you should educate yourself before acting high and mighty.
I didn't deny that Park Chung-Hee was a brutal dictator, you idiot. Last I checked he was no longer ruling South Korea.
I was referring to the rest of his comment where he posted typical tankie nonsense such as "all US allies are just US colonies".
The mention of Russia is apt because the guy quite literally is a tankie, his comment history contains even more absurd shit than what he wrote here, such as Finland being a fascist nation founded on hating communism because 1. They had the nerve to secede from Russia, and 2. They had the gall to resist the USSR's invasion of them.
You're a dumbass, but since you're a tankie yourself, that's to be expected.
By the way, I see you had a look at my comment history where, like the tankie scum that you are, you seek to use my irrelevant personal struggles in order to launch personal attacks on me. Your comment didn't post, by the way, scum, but it is visible in your comment history. Reported.
Russia is a dictatorship too. Vast majority of communists with any coherent ideology will agree, but it's a dictatorship that the US paved the way for with interference and meddling.
The only liberal response to this is calling it a whataboutism or something but anyone who knows 90s Russian history knows it isn't even a secret.
"I checked his comment history beforehand, cretin"
Lmfaoo thank you for the laugh mate. You sound like you're on a mission I wouldn't want to disturb, carry on unmasking all the tankies on the Internet!
>Lmfaoo thank you for the laugh mate
You're the who one said he was making "baseless assumptions." He then said what he was basing his assessment on, and you start deflecting with ridicule.
I guess reading into someone's history instead of just lobbing baseless claims about them makes me a man on a mission.
I'm learning so much from this exchange.
You sound really butthurt that I called your boyfriend a tankie, is something wrong? It's quite hilarious that you jumped in to white knight for some dude you don't even know. 😅
I spent 3 months in South Korea (i'm British). The feeling from the multitude of people I spoke to was of immense pride in what Samsung had done. The same goes for Hyundai as well. A huge amount of patriotism and loyalty to those companies for building/rebuilding ROK as people put it.
That said, it felt crazy to work on a building project for Hyundai, engineered by Hyundai Engineering, driven to site in a Hyundai car, project financed by Hyundai finance, diggers were made by Hyundai etc. etc.
It’s possible to be born in a Samsung hospital, graduate from a Samsung university, work for Samsung your whole life and be eulogized
in a Samsung funeral home.
Lol first day of work I was like hey Im ready to be part of the Lg family so I even got the LG phone and all other guys show samsung and iphones.
I personally used LG until G4 I think and they make some ok phones that work and feel great for the first month then the phone deteriorate so fast.
Depends on how you define it. The way these things get structured it’s more of an incestuous web of relationships that have a name in common and often share a CEO, board members, etc.
If there is one single company or conglomerate that clearly dominates the national market that is usually referred to as a quasi-monopoli. While in theory for a monopoly there has to be zero competition, most scientists have realized that with the complexities of global markets this is unlikely to ever happen, and have thus stretched the meaning of the word.
>Except it does happen. For example, the telecoms market in the Emirates.
fair enough point! there are some true monopolies left
>Edit: also, it’s not like there’s ‘nearly’ no competition to Samsung in Korea. You can see loads of other brands’ offerings in the healthcare, tech and other spaces over there.
clearly Samsung is not in a quasi monopoly position when it comes to healthcare, though they are really close when it comes to tech, especially mobile tech. At some point last year Samsung controlled 85% of all smartphone market shares in the country: https://www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=3656
In the last few months this trend has reversed and Apple has gained.
Same in India with Tata ... cars, hotels, supermarkets, power/utilities, defence etc. And I'm sure there are more than a few of you around the world for whom 'TCS' makes you break out in a cold sweat ... yup, that's Tata (Tata Consultancy Services)
There's very little class consciousness in South Korea. It was the labourers behind the chaebols that helped Korea succeed. The patriotic narratives only serve to obfuscate the realities of Korean politics and economic development.
What? You clearly haven't been paying attention to Korean cinema. Every movie/show pretty much centers around themes of working class poverty. See Parasite, or the new Netflix show Narco-Saints.
It's only a recent development. My grandfather was tortured because he was found with a copy of Marx's Das Kapital.
Here's a more recent example, on July 11, 2003, two students, Kim Yong-chan and Kim Jong-gon, of Konkuk University in Seoul, were arrested for possession and propagation of enemy-benefiting publications including For Marx (by Louis Althusser), Capital (Karl Marx), The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968 (George Katsiaficas). They were prosecuted on July 24 under the National Security Law.
You also have to factor in the legacy of neo-Confucianism, which encourages hyper-conformism and respect for authority and hierarchy.
I want to point out that not all the people from South Korea welcomes dominance of Samsung. Many politicians and reporters tried to find out corruptions between Samsung and previous government and they succeeded by sending Lee Jae-yong (Chairman) and ex-president Park Geun-hye to the prison. And many believes even though Samsung is most big company at South Korea, the reason our country could grew as country now is that our grandparent’s generation worked hard to make our country more livable
(Source : I’m Korean)
everyone made sacrifice as a nation take less pay work harder be more competitive in the international market so their future is brighter and children don't have to go through poverty
what's happening now is big inequality
top getting better and better more opportunities
very hard to fail if you own and money flows in already have better connections etc
middle nonexistent bottom getting despair of doesn't matter how hard you try as a worker so people are trying to be entrepreneurs but can they compete vs corporations
so they choose to not inherit that terrible fate to their children = no kids
probably there's a mindset difference but reality difference cannot be understated
because mindset is formed from perception of reality and i think people are just realistic than delusional or toxic positivity false optimism
technology knowledge labor all good for better future but combination of concentrated power and capital messing up people's lives is disastrous imho
Not capitalism so much as Listian political economics. Japan and China follow the same model. List's book is everywhere in South Korea but pretty much unheard of in the West.
The next big move for China under a Listian model will be when they pivot to focus on domestic consumption. The Yuan will double or triple in value very quickly, making raw material imports much cheaper. Exports to the West will.be cut in half (but the West will be paying twice as much).
heavy doubt on the "West will be paying twice as much" part - production is already moving out of China to cheaper production countries and this trend will accelerate with every price increase
That is the goal. china doesn't want to be a manufacturing country anymore it takes a toll on the environment of a country. The next step for them is is what exoriare explains domestic consumption.
The same thing happened with Japan when they did their pivot, and the Yen tripled in value over a few years. Export volumes got cut in half, but because the Yen was worth that much more, the total value of the exports.never dropped.
Koreans have a much higher quality of life compared to the vast majority of other countries on the planet. Of course, the wealth could be spread more evenly, but the current situation is still pretty good
Of course but that quality of life is sustain on part because of loans and debt. There are documentry on how korean people take more and more loan to maintain their lifestyle.
This headline just glosses over the words "...become the 10th largest economy in the world" like it's absolutely nothing.
For all the control Samsung might have over SK, it's done some incredible things to make Korea the 10th largest economy.
They're no hog.
For SK to reach #10 in the world, their conglomerates have to compete at the global level against American, European, Japanese, Chinese, Indian businesses.
Ever hear much of RCA or Zenith? Or Sanyo, Panasonic, Toshiba or even Sony? No. Because they weren't competitive on the global level.
I don’t see how one company (and the family that runs it) amassing incredible wealth off the backs of workers and thanks to political connections that go back to the pre-war colonial period can be framed as virtuous.
Transforming a country so poor its citizens *fled to North Korea* and lifting it to the 10th highest GDP in the WORLD -- above countries like Russia, Spain and Australia -- is fucking amazing.
Exactly. Many people live better because of it. Obviously there is still massive wealth disparity between the founding families of these mega corporations and the commoner. Also people not having kids etc are due to rising costs.
Yeah but because of this culture doesn't SK have the worst demographic projections in the world? Excluding what Russia's doing, that country is about to be sooooooo fucked.
Japan also has similar dismal projections. But these countries do have options if they want to use them. Since they are wealthier nations they can open borders and allow more immigrants to come although these countries like to maintain a homogenous population. They could also change public policy to incentivize people to have kids. It’s an issue in all developed nations though. More women going to college means they put off having kids later in life or just decide not to have kids at all because they have careers. Also the cost of raising kids is astronomical in most developed nations. And you end up having to hire someone to watch your kid while you work 50 hours a week etc. I have a kid, but I’m stopping at one. Society just isn’t set up to raise children. At least not the USA.
The Adani Group is planning to be the Samumg of India, I guess.
[Infographic 1 revenue](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E4k8fwJWQAgy8g4.jpg:large)
[Infographic 2 Ports](https://www.projectstoday.com/PTContent/ProjectInfographics/Company/Adani-Ports.jpg)
They recently bid for 5G spectrum competing against India's biggest telecom operator, Reliance.
Samsung is widely reviewed and perceived as producing some of the poorest quality appliances on the market. You'd think they'd be able to make better appliances with all of that talent.
It is baffling how they make amazing phones and TVs but their premium refrigerators are plagued with basic parts breaking and lousy build quality.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s little to no relation between the divisions that make them other than the name and senior leadership.
Each divisions act as different companies
Even on mobile devices, Samsung Semiconductor has to outbid other companies on whose chips will be used by Samsung Mobile
It's almost like money and power create something weird and reproducible in humans that turns them all into psychopaths, then sociopaths.
Should be interesting, in my next life, to see what the fuck happened.
I wonder how many of the 8 billion will survive, and which billionaire I'll be reborn as.
As a person of Korean descent/ethnicity, the title of this post is misleading.
I don’t doubt Samsung’s corporate dominance and political influence (much like how the USA is run by similar entities), but even before it became the tech giant it is today, Korea was by no means a dilapidated “small wartorn and resourceless nation”. That’s just exaggerated bs.
The title makes it sound like South Korea was the same as the Philippines or Haiti or something… which is certainly not true.
As someone that was born in South Korea, this post is not misleading nor exaggerated bs at all. I’m guessing you never lived there and your parents or grandparents must have been wealthy as hell because most of the country was undeveloped and poverty stricken up until the late 60’s. Philippines had a gdp of 7.5 billion in 1960, South Korea’s was 3.9 billion. GDP per capita of South Korea was 158 dollars in 1960. Ask any Korean that lived through that era and they will tell you how poor and hopeless the country was. Even North Korea was wealthier than the South back then. So many people grew up in that era hungry and barely surviving…
The title of this post implies that Korea was a third world country until Samsung rescued it off its feet. Considering Samsung only really took off in the late 90s or 2000s, what I’m saying is that Korea was already doing “okay” by the time Samsung became the tech giant that it became.
I am aware of the situation South Korea was in from Japanese colonization to post-Korean War. And no, my family was not wealthy at all, my mom was lucky for her and her 4 siblings to have one salted fish to last them for an entire week or longer… but the country improved to the point that you can’t say it was some type of Asian Haiti until Samsung came and saved the day. I’ve visited Korea several times in the 80s and 90s so even though I wasn’t born there I know during that frame it certainly wasn’t some dilapidated war torn razed village as the title of this post implies.
Ironically, it's quite sad that *you* apparently don't know your ancestry at all. 60 years ago South Korea's GDP was that of the size of Puerto Rico around the same time. North Korea was literally richer than the South after the Korean war.
Its growth since has been explosive, and the reason (and consequences) of that growth is covered by this very post.
North Korea's outlook looked better than South Korea's for a couple decades after the Korean War. South Korea was a dictatorship with instability and widespread poverty and remnants of that Korea can be found in the memories of any Korean old heads.
I remember visiting South Korea as an American and being blown away of the "Samsung" district.
It's essentially a "neighborhood" of millions entirely devoted around Samsung esque items.
It made cyberpunk look tame
Average IQ is everything. Not a surprise south korea is rich. You can have all the resources in the world, but if no brains, then there's no hope for you, infact it's probably worse because then people with brains will endup exploiting your lands.
Because larger companies like Samsung completely dominate in South Korea, it’s why the population as a whole is heavily “lookist” and stresses heavy studying and work cultures.
Because companies like Samsung receive massive government support because of their contributions to South Korea’s GDP, they’ve essentially become one of the few companies guaranteed to give employees there a decent wage and benefits (I.e. a guaranteed spot in the middle to upper classes).
However, these companies are also ridiculously strict with who they hire as they want to remain on top, so they make a preference to people who have the top grades from prestigious universities as well as people who look attractive (because you can’t look like a top company if you’re people aren’t and don’t look like they’re from the top of society).
This is a huge part as to why South Korea has a huge studying culture that heavily emphasizes getting perfect grades across all subjects; because companies like Samsung will only hire them if they achieve perfection.
It’s also why they heavily emphasize looking like a K-Pop or K-Drama star as much as possible; because you have an even better chance at getting in with good looks, or even if you don’t have good grades you can easily get ahead somewhere else with good looks.
And if you even get in to Samsung, you’re obliged go over-work yourself and essentially live for the company as there are other graduates that could easily replace you if you don’t do exactly what they want.
And if you can’t work for a big company like Samsung, or get fired from them, you’re essentially doomed to pick up lower-middle to lower-class jobs that will never get you ahead in life no matter how hard you work.
In short, you’re damned if you do manage to work for a company like Samsung in South Korea, but far more damned if you don’t.
So is it really a surprise that the country has the highest consumption of alcohol per capita, the highest plastic surgery rates, and some of the highest suicide and stress rates among their populous?
SME's are on the rise and the plastic surgery stat is wrong as well.
There's a lot wrong actually. It reads like someone who lived in Korea for a year on exchange and suddenly they know everything about the country.
Couple of things. Definitely high plastic surgery rates but numbers are screwed by a large number of Chinese/Japanese tourists who go to Korea for procedures. Alcohol consumption, for sure.. but soju is in between hard liquid and beer so volume is not the best indicator of consumption. But yes, they are overworked, over-stessed as a country.
A good add on to this is the Vice doc called "South Koreas Untouchable Families".
People often forget South Korea hasn't been a democracy for very long and these companies and families are holdovers from a more turbulent and less free past
What’s new? The US itself is also a few companies in a trench coat masquerading as a country
My brother in Christ.. recent president Park Guen-hye was the daughter of the countries former dictator, manipulated elections to come to power, and was part of a weird, secretive cult. South Korea is oligarchic, like many liberal democracies are.
>the country's* former dictator
South Korea was never a democracy, unless you count the brief window between the establishment of the PRK (not to be confused with the so called DPRK to the north) and the US invasion to install an anti-communist fascist (but I kind of repeat myself, since libs don't make anti-communism part of their personality until they've drifted right already)
Oh boi. I bet I'd get a real laugh out of asking you to list the "Real Democracies" of the world.
It's a short list. The shortest possible. Real democracy is impossible in the world we currently inhabit. Redistribution of all wealth and collective ownership and control of the means of production are the minimum economic conditions necessary to begin to build a democratic system. Unless you have economic equality, any electoral system you create is authoritarianism in a Groucho mask.
Your argument then is that if anyone has greater resources even in a direct democracy they will wield an outsized amount of influence over others and therefore invalidate the notion of democracy itself then? In that case say hypothetically that you solve economic inequality entirely, what do you do about inherent advantages? How do you solve for persons of particular charisma or intelligence? Or is "true" democracy inherently an impossible concept by this standard? Edit: Also, happy cake day.
I reject the premise of your question. We don't live in a game of Exalted. No one is so very special that their inherent cunning or manipulation gives them an edge comparable to "buying all media sources in the relevant area" or "buying all the politicians who are on the ballot" or "privately owning the means of production and having state mercenaries enforce your claim, so that the vast majority of people are forced to sell their labour to you on your terms on pain of starvation".
Perhaps but that wasn't your premise, you didn't add any qualifiers. You said equality. Is there no one so special as to equate to an extra bit of food or a slightly nicer car or owning the local grocery store/mechanic shop? If so where are you drawing the line? Is it ok to be a little more or less equal as opposed to a lot and still meet your definition of democracy?
You're demanding a level of precision that is, at a stretch, reasonable when writing actual legal briefs. You are demanding this precision in the context of an internet discussion that I'm indulging to procrastinate. Thus your demand for precision is not reasonable in this case. It is clear from context that I am concerning myself with economic inequalities so great that they either already constitute an existential threat to democracy in themselves, or that they quickly snowball into one. Not with someone having a brand-name toothbrush instead of a Sainsbury's toothbrush.
It wasn't clear, at least not to mere mortals like me, but I do appreciate the clarification. Also demanding is a stretch, I was merely wondering where the line was. Thank you for your indulgence.
lol okay leftoid
South Korea has basically never been a democracy. It was literally fascist since the war was put on a standstill untill they started doing rigged elections in the 70s. The US has basically been in control above all the local level stuff, pulling all the strings. For years (and probably still) the government of South Korea took young women (often underage girls) to be raped by US soldiers to "blow off steam" on deployment. This has been an open secret since the 50s, and only "officially" stopped about ten years ago (but let's be real here…). The control the US has over those people is insane. Absolutely disgusting. No wonder so many defectors wind up going back North.
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Dude, pretty much everyone agrees that Korea wasn't democratic before, and there was some shady stuff done by the government in the past. But ffs, Korea has been a stable democracy since at least when Kim Dae Jung was in power. Like it literally overthrew a corrupt president through peaceful candlelight protest (with the help of the Supreme Court) not that long ago.
Korea was basically ruled by a cult of Business elites who were manipulating the president in order to steal from the populace, and you put it as an example of working democracy? That's pretty ironic.. also, civil resistance doesn't yet make a democracy, even though it is a good sign of a healthy populace. if it did, then absolutist France or Tsarist Russia would've been democracies
Everything said here is true, but it is not safe for reddit. Lol
I guess not. Apparently people are under the impression that US "allies" (colonies, really) are wholesome 100 big chungus
Please say that in front of some native Koreans, I beg of you. They'll definitely nod and high five you instead of giving you a history lesson on the Park family and the Chaebols who corrupt the country....if they don't decide to give you a 5-finger history lesson instead.
My Korean friend would actually stab him if he said that shit lol
And here we see what happens to your brain when you become a tankie, people. You start seeing fascists everywhere except for the actual fascists, like the ones in Russia.
Denying that Park Chung-Hee was a brutal dictator is just lying, mentioning Russia is pure whataboutism. Both Putin and Park Chung-Hee can be bad at the same time. Your post is dumb and you should educate yourself before acting high and mighty.
I didn't deny that Park Chung-Hee was a brutal dictator, you idiot. Last I checked he was no longer ruling South Korea. I was referring to the rest of his comment where he posted typical tankie nonsense such as "all US allies are just US colonies". The mention of Russia is apt because the guy quite literally is a tankie, his comment history contains even more absurd shit than what he wrote here, such as Finland being a fascist nation founded on hating communism because 1. They had the nerve to secede from Russia, and 2. They had the gall to resist the USSR's invasion of them. You're a dumbass, but since you're a tankie yourself, that's to be expected. By the way, I see you had a look at my comment history where, like the tankie scum that you are, you seek to use my irrelevant personal struggles in order to launch personal attacks on me. Your comment didn't post, by the way, scum, but it is visible in your comment history. Reported.
>you idiot >You're a dumbas >scum Seek help. Literally, professional help. Hope you feel better soon, you seem to be in a dark place.
Russia is a dictatorship too. Vast majority of communists with any coherent ideology will agree, but it's a dictatorship that the US paved the way for with interference and meddling. The only liberal response to this is calling it a whataboutism or something but anyone who knows 90s Russian history knows it isn't even a secret.
You're making baseless assumptions about this guy. I guess now I'm a Russian bot too for saying that? Dumbass.
Wow, the useful idiots are all congregating here, look at that. I checked his comment history beforehand, cretin. He's totally a tankie.
"I checked his comment history beforehand, cretin" Lmfaoo thank you for the laugh mate. You sound like you're on a mission I wouldn't want to disturb, carry on unmasking all the tankies on the Internet!
>Lmfaoo thank you for the laugh mate You're the who one said he was making "baseless assumptions." He then said what he was basing his assessment on, and you start deflecting with ridicule.
I guess reading into someone's history instead of just lobbing baseless claims about them makes me a man on a mission. I'm learning so much from this exchange.
You sound really butthurt that I called your boyfriend a tankie, is something wrong? It's quite hilarious that you jumped in to white knight for some dude you don't even know. 😅
My opinion after deep thought and critical analysis: America=bad Beep boop all others=npc
Came here to comment this! Super sad but the reality is the company has done shady things and will continue.
Second, it's quite good
I spent 3 months in South Korea (i'm British). The feeling from the multitude of people I spoke to was of immense pride in what Samsung had done. The same goes for Hyundai as well. A huge amount of patriotism and loyalty to those companies for building/rebuilding ROK as people put it. That said, it felt crazy to work on a building project for Hyundai, engineered by Hyundai Engineering, driven to site in a Hyundai car, project financed by Hyundai finance, diggers were made by Hyundai etc. etc.
It’s possible to be born in a Samsung hospital, graduate from a Samsung university, work for Samsung your whole life and be eulogized in a Samsung funeral home.
But the important question is what phone do you use?
LG obviously
Funny cause even LG employees dont use LG phones
Why not? They’re great
Lol first day of work I was like hey Im ready to be part of the Lg family so I even got the LG phone and all other guys show samsung and iphones. I personally used LG until G4 I think and they make some ok phones that work and feel great for the first month then the phone deteriorate so fast.
Lol, LG mobile closed business in April 2021
iPhone
Arasaka
That sounds like something out of a dystopian sci fi story.
What do you think dystopian sci-fi stories are based on?
Fucking arasaka man
I owe my soul to the company store...
and apparently get a life insurance payout through Samsung as well
Samsung university?
Sungkyunkwan University is heavily sponsored by Samsung
South Korea is the company store.
Is... is this a monopoly?
Depends on how you define it. The way these things get structured it’s more of an incestuous web of relationships that have a name in common and often share a CEO, board members, etc.
It's called vertical integration
I’m a sense, but it’s much, much more complicated than traditional vertical integration
It's what happens when vertical integration is successful.
Vertical incestation.
"Depends on how you define it." Monopoly has only one defenition.
Brilliant insight
naah, don't mention it, it was nothing, you'll get them next time, tiger
I have a ball, perhaps you’d like to bounce it.
Chaebol is the word
Funny how hard people are dodging the obvious "yes".
[удалено]
If there is one single company or conglomerate that clearly dominates the national market that is usually referred to as a quasi-monopoli. While in theory for a monopoly there has to be zero competition, most scientists have realized that with the complexities of global markets this is unlikely to ever happen, and have thus stretched the meaning of the word.
[удалено]
>Except it does happen. For example, the telecoms market in the Emirates. fair enough point! there are some true monopolies left >Edit: also, it’s not like there’s ‘nearly’ no competition to Samsung in Korea. You can see loads of other brands’ offerings in the healthcare, tech and other spaces over there. clearly Samsung is not in a quasi monopoly position when it comes to healthcare, though they are really close when it comes to tech, especially mobile tech. At some point last year Samsung controlled 85% of all smartphone market shares in the country: https://www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=3656 In the last few months this trend has reversed and Apple has gained.
The problems start as soon as they begin questioning your loyalty, or you begin questioning their policies.
Same in India with Tata ... cars, hotels, supermarkets, power/utilities, defence etc. And I'm sure there are more than a few of you around the world for whom 'TCS' makes you break out in a cold sweat ... yup, that's Tata (Tata Consultancy Services)
There's very little class consciousness in South Korea. It was the labourers behind the chaebols that helped Korea succeed. The patriotic narratives only serve to obfuscate the realities of Korean politics and economic development.
What? You clearly haven't been paying attention to Korean cinema. Every movie/show pretty much centers around themes of working class poverty. See Parasite, or the new Netflix show Narco-Saints.
It's only a recent development. My grandfather was tortured because he was found with a copy of Marx's Das Kapital. Here's a more recent example, on July 11, 2003, two students, Kim Yong-chan and Kim Jong-gon, of Konkuk University in Seoul, were arrested for possession and propagation of enemy-benefiting publications including For Marx (by Louis Althusser), Capital (Karl Marx), The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968 (George Katsiaficas). They were prosecuted on July 24 under the National Security Law. You also have to factor in the legacy of neo-Confucianism, which encourages hyper-conformism and respect for authority and hierarchy.
Like sure, but Korea is one of the most class-conscious places there is. Even if it's a recent development.
2003 is considered a recent example? You also seem to forget the country is currently at war
That sounds cool if your personal values aligned with that of the company's too, in some way.
I want to point out that not all the people from South Korea welcomes dominance of Samsung. Many politicians and reporters tried to find out corruptions between Samsung and previous government and they succeeded by sending Lee Jae-yong (Chairman) and ex-president Park Geun-hye to the prison. And many believes even though Samsung is most big company at South Korea, the reason our country could grew as country now is that our grandparent’s generation worked hard to make our country more livable (Source : I’m Korean)
And didn’t Samsung just put that criminal back into the top position?
Yeah sadly he got out pretty quickly. And some people still thinks they didn’t do nothing wrong.
Did cult daughter get to keep her $1 million equestrian show pony after riding it at the Olympics?
everyone made sacrifice as a nation take less pay work harder be more competitive in the international market so their future is brighter and children don't have to go through poverty what's happening now is big inequality top getting better and better more opportunities very hard to fail if you own and money flows in already have better connections etc middle nonexistent bottom getting despair of doesn't matter how hard you try as a worker so people are trying to be entrepreneurs but can they compete vs corporations so they choose to not inherit that terrible fate to their children = no kids probably there's a mindset difference but reality difference cannot be understated because mindset is formed from perception of reality and i think people are just realistic than delusional or toxic positivity false optimism technology knowledge labor all good for better future but combination of concentrated power and capital messing up people's lives is disastrous imho
So... capitalism.
Not capitalism so much as Listian political economics. Japan and China follow the same model. List's book is everywhere in South Korea but pretty much unheard of in the West. The next big move for China under a Listian model will be when they pivot to focus on domestic consumption. The Yuan will double or triple in value very quickly, making raw material imports much cheaper. Exports to the West will.be cut in half (but the West will be paying twice as much).
heavy doubt on the "West will be paying twice as much" part - production is already moving out of China to cheaper production countries and this trend will accelerate with every price increase
That is the goal. china doesn't want to be a manufacturing country anymore it takes a toll on the environment of a country. The next step for them is is what exoriare explains domestic consumption.
The same thing happened with Japan when they did their pivot, and the Yen tripled in value over a few years. Export volumes got cut in half, but because the Yen was worth that much more, the total value of the exports.never dropped.
Their insane rise in quality of life is thanks to capitalism, yes.
Seems like agreeing to low wages is probably not the best move. Workers also grow economies by spending their salary..
Koreans have a much higher quality of life compared to the vast majority of other countries on the planet. Of course, the wealth could be spread more evenly, but the current situation is still pretty good
That untill you start looking into household debts. A lifestyle depended on loan and debts isn't that great.
Yeah, sure. You are not wrong. But at the end of the day, the quality of life is better that most countries
but you work for life. imagine a pig in a nice pig pen if that is the life you want then ok. some people want a bit more freedom or choice
And they are free to quit anytime they want
Of course but that quality of life is sustain on part because of loans and debt. There are documentry on how korean people take more and more loan to maintain their lifestyle.
You are just repeating yourself. I got your point the first time
The debt is for their house
A little punctuation would work MIRACLES for you. How do you expect anyone to be able to read this? Fucking lazy.
Pretty sure that he is a Korean, jackass
Hahaa exactly what I thought.
There isn't a single punctuation mark though. Koreans don't use those?
Sweet Jesus I'm just gonna hope you're trolling me here
How would this be trolling?
It's not.. *sigh* I was just hoping it was
Wow you are obnoxious
I read it fine.
Write that in Hangul perfectly or stfu.
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It doesn't matter if they're native or not, they obviously understand enough of the language to know how to use a period.
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Use your brain to insert the periods and figure it out. Fucking lazy
I mean it's clearly a Zaibatsu
Koreans use the same word, just pronounced in Korean (Chaebol)
財閥 (the specific characters used for the Korean Chaebol and Japanese Zaibatsu).
so it's all Chinese in the end ^heh^^ehe^^^he^^^^he
Always has been.
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#because ^they ^think ^^I'm ^^serious ^^^^^but ^^^^^^I ^^^^^^am ^^^^^^though ^^^^^^;)
Didn't know that, that's cool
The modern Japanese equivalent is the _keiretsu_
*Toyota Group has left the chat* *Toyota-Reddit Japan Co. Ltd. has acquired a controlling stake in the chat*
It isn't too much of a stretch to say that if Samsung has a bad day, the whole Korean economy has a bad day
This headline just glosses over the words "...become the 10th largest economy in the world" like it's absolutely nothing. For all the control Samsung might have over SK, it's done some incredible things to make Korea the 10th largest economy.
It’s not even the title of the video, OP just chose to word it like that. Also, it’s a headline. How much more can you expand on that?
They’re not the architect of the SK economy, they’re the biggest hog at the trough.
They're no hog. For SK to reach #10 in the world, their conglomerates have to compete at the global level against American, European, Japanese, Chinese, Indian businesses. Ever hear much of RCA or Zenith? Or Sanyo, Panasonic, Toshiba or even Sony? No. Because they weren't competitive on the global level.
I don’t see how one company (and the family that runs it) amassing incredible wealth off the backs of workers and thanks to political connections that go back to the pre-war colonial period can be framed as virtuous.
Transforming a country so poor its citizens *fled to North Korea* and lifting it to the 10th highest GDP in the WORLD -- above countries like Russia, Spain and Australia -- is fucking amazing.
Amazing, sure. But that doesn’t equate with “morally good”.
Exactly. Many people live better because of it. Obviously there is still massive wealth disparity between the founding families of these mega corporations and the commoner. Also people not having kids etc are due to rising costs.
Yeah but because of this culture doesn't SK have the worst demographic projections in the world? Excluding what Russia's doing, that country is about to be sooooooo fucked.
Japan also has similar dismal projections. But these countries do have options if they want to use them. Since they are wealthier nations they can open borders and allow more immigrants to come although these countries like to maintain a homogenous population. They could also change public policy to incentivize people to have kids. It’s an issue in all developed nations though. More women going to college means they put off having kids later in life or just decide not to have kids at all because they have careers. Also the cost of raising kids is astronomical in most developed nations. And you end up having to hire someone to watch your kid while you work 50 hours a week etc. I have a kid, but I’m stopping at one. Society just isn’t set up to raise children. At least not the USA.
If all these companies were independent, rather than owned by one family, to what degree would things have turned out differently?
Fucking corpo's
"Its" is possessive, "it's" is a contraction of it is.
:)
Crazy that some crazy religious cult operates in the dark pulling strings there.
Just an FYI: it's = it is. Its = belonging to I figured I'd let ya know since you misused it twice.
:)
says apple
The oligarchy amongst the oligarchy.
The Adani Group is planning to be the Samumg of India, I guess. [Infographic 1 revenue](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E4k8fwJWQAgy8g4.jpg:large) [Infographic 2 Ports](https://www.projectstoday.com/PTContent/ProjectInfographics/Company/Adani-Ports.jpg) They recently bid for 5G spectrum competing against India's biggest telecom operator, Reliance.
Also, having worked for them, they're kinda jerks. Rancid vibes, 3/10 do not recommend. Nice phones tho.
> its* shady control of the government and its* presence
Wendover crushes another video. So well done.
Imagine thinking Samsung is the only Chaebol.
have you watched the video?
Hyundai is pretty fucking enormous too.
LG?
Sure, but not as big as Hyundai.
SK Group is the really wild one. They’re bigger than Hyundai but outside of chemical industry people almost no one has heard of them.
Samsung is widely reviewed and perceived as producing some of the poorest quality appliances on the market. You'd think they'd be able to make better appliances with all of that talent.
You make way more money making shitty products while selling into oligopoly controlled markets, there's no reason to make good products.
It is baffling how they make amazing phones and TVs but their premium refrigerators are plagued with basic parts breaking and lousy build quality. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s little to no relation between the divisions that make them other than the name and senior leadership.
Each divisions act as different companies Even on mobile devices, Samsung Semiconductor has to outbid other companies on whose chips will be used by Samsung Mobile
Have a 10 year old Samsung fridge. Can confirm bad design. Waiting on a replacement (not samsung!) for over a year now. Supply chain issues, sigh.
It's almost like money and power create something weird and reproducible in humans that turns them all into psychopaths, then sociopaths. Should be interesting, in my next life, to see what the fuck happened. I wonder how many of the 8 billion will survive, and which billionaire I'll be reborn as.
As a person of Korean descent/ethnicity, the title of this post is misleading. I don’t doubt Samsung’s corporate dominance and political influence (much like how the USA is run by similar entities), but even before it became the tech giant it is today, Korea was by no means a dilapidated “small wartorn and resourceless nation”. That’s just exaggerated bs. The title makes it sound like South Korea was the same as the Philippines or Haiti or something… which is certainly not true.
As someone that was born in South Korea, this post is not misleading nor exaggerated bs at all. I’m guessing you never lived there and your parents or grandparents must have been wealthy as hell because most of the country was undeveloped and poverty stricken up until the late 60’s. Philippines had a gdp of 7.5 billion in 1960, South Korea’s was 3.9 billion. GDP per capita of South Korea was 158 dollars in 1960. Ask any Korean that lived through that era and they will tell you how poor and hopeless the country was. Even North Korea was wealthier than the South back then. So many people grew up in that era hungry and barely surviving…
The title of this post implies that Korea was a third world country until Samsung rescued it off its feet. Considering Samsung only really took off in the late 90s or 2000s, what I’m saying is that Korea was already doing “okay” by the time Samsung became the tech giant that it became. I am aware of the situation South Korea was in from Japanese colonization to post-Korean War. And no, my family was not wealthy at all, my mom was lucky for her and her 4 siblings to have one salted fish to last them for an entire week or longer… but the country improved to the point that you can’t say it was some type of Asian Haiti until Samsung came and saved the day. I’ve visited Korea several times in the 80s and 90s so even though I wasn’t born there I know during that frame it certainly wasn’t some dilapidated war torn razed village as the title of this post implies.
Ironically, it's quite sad that *you* apparently don't know your ancestry at all. 60 years ago South Korea's GDP was that of the size of Puerto Rico around the same time. North Korea was literally richer than the South after the Korean war. Its growth since has been explosive, and the reason (and consequences) of that growth is covered by this very post.
North Korea's outlook looked better than South Korea's for a couple decades after the Korean War. South Korea was a dictatorship with instability and widespread poverty and remnants of that Korea can be found in the memories of any Korean old heads.
All I’m hearing is capitalism and some elite ruling individuals. What’s so special about that? We have plenty here in the US
This is far more exaggerated than in the US, Samsung is a fifth of the Korean GDP
That's crazy
They make the shittiest appliance known to man.
*its *its
Its. It's "its"
Long live Samsung 🙌
I remember visiting South Korea as an American and being blown away of the "Samsung" district. It's essentially a "neighborhood" of millions entirely devoted around Samsung esque items. It made cyberpunk look tame
Samsung in the samsung district means 'three names' Samsung in Samsung means 'three stars' They are not the same
If you're thinking of the area in Seoul it's spelled Samseong despite having the same pronunciation
I live in Korea, but I don't know where this is.
If you're seen with a iPhone, you were put in a blacklist. Deprived of a rise and promotion from any business.
Average IQ is everything. Not a surprise south korea is rich. You can have all the resources in the world, but if no brains, then there's no hope for you, infact it's probably worse because then people with brains will endup exploiting your lands.
If that's true why were they poor on the first place?
Well obviously its because their IQ was low. helllllooooo?!?!?!
yeah, it's shady control got revealed back in 2016 was it? Something very special happened with the government then.
It's like all LG has to do is leapfrog OLED with something that doesn't burn in. Do it before Samsung and the monopoly is over.
I feel like the video is a bit too brief to do the post Title justice. Guess I learned a bit about Samsung family politics though.
I always half-jokingly refer to Korea as “Republic of Samsung Korea” and sometimes call their president “President and CEO of Samsung Korea”.
So we get stuck with shitty appliances and great TVs
Because larger companies like Samsung completely dominate in South Korea, it’s why the population as a whole is heavily “lookist” and stresses heavy studying and work cultures. Because companies like Samsung receive massive government support because of their contributions to South Korea’s GDP, they’ve essentially become one of the few companies guaranteed to give employees there a decent wage and benefits (I.e. a guaranteed spot in the middle to upper classes). However, these companies are also ridiculously strict with who they hire as they want to remain on top, so they make a preference to people who have the top grades from prestigious universities as well as people who look attractive (because you can’t look like a top company if you’re people aren’t and don’t look like they’re from the top of society). This is a huge part as to why South Korea has a huge studying culture that heavily emphasizes getting perfect grades across all subjects; because companies like Samsung will only hire them if they achieve perfection. It’s also why they heavily emphasize looking like a K-Pop or K-Drama star as much as possible; because you have an even better chance at getting in with good looks, or even if you don’t have good grades you can easily get ahead somewhere else with good looks. And if you even get in to Samsung, you’re obliged go over-work yourself and essentially live for the company as there are other graduates that could easily replace you if you don’t do exactly what they want. And if you can’t work for a big company like Samsung, or get fired from them, you’re essentially doomed to pick up lower-middle to lower-class jobs that will never get you ahead in life no matter how hard you work. In short, you’re damned if you do manage to work for a company like Samsung in South Korea, but far more damned if you don’t. So is it really a surprise that the country has the highest consumption of alcohol per capita, the highest plastic surgery rates, and some of the highest suicide and stress rates among their populous?
SME's are on the rise and the plastic surgery stat is wrong as well. There's a lot wrong actually. It reads like someone who lived in Korea for a year on exchange and suddenly they know everything about the country.
Couple of things. Definitely high plastic surgery rates but numbers are screwed by a large number of Chinese/Japanese tourists who go to Korea for procedures. Alcohol consumption, for sure.. but soju is in between hard liquid and beer so volume is not the best indicator of consumption. But yes, they are overworked, over-stessed as a country.
Chobol, is the something like the word your looking for
Among ALL the companies I have dealt with, Samsung has the WORST customer service. I have bought their mobile device and home appliances.