Wow!  check it out! Banning “Advanced Learning”

I am not sure if President Park has ever read the Korean constitution.

Article31
(1)All citizens shall have an equal right to an education corresponding to their abilities.
(2)All citizens who have children to support shall be responsible at least fort heir elementary
education and other
education as provided by Act.
(3)Compulsory education shall be free of charge.
(4)Independence, professionalism and political impartiality of education and the autonomy of institutions of higher learning shall be guaranteed under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
(5)The State shall promote lifelong education.
(6)Fundamental matters pertaining to the educational system,including school and lifelong education, administration,
finance, and the status of teachers shall be determined  by Act.

Why do I even worry about the antics of President Park.  If she wants that bill to come into law, it will be immediately annulled by simply invoking the constitution.  You cannot fight the private education industry with the LAW, it is not possible unless you change the constitution.  Who are her advisers.  If she would give me half their salary, I could come up with a far more effective deterrent to excessive spending in private education,without having to resort to bullying tactics.  I really wonder what the hell is going on in their minds.

I wrote about this in the past.

The government’s actions are simply said, not incentive compatible.  If they truly want to liberate the parents from exhaustive expenses on education, you don’t resolve it by putting a lot of energy in closing down businesses, you provide an alternative.  In this case, quality public education.  But Korea doesn’t have the budget for that, that is why individual parents are paying for it.  Ergo sum, it’s cheaper to try and break the hagwon industry.

If President Park would be successful in closing down my business, due to all those extreme measures, what will happen?  The same that happened with Prohibition and the War on Drugs.  It will go underground and it will become a crime. Not only will it become a crime, the costs will go up even more dramatically due to higher risk for the entrepreneurial spirit.  I have no problems with regulations that are sensible, it just forces the business to respect basic rights of the individuals and reduces potential abuse.  But pushing the law a bit too far will only create more criminals and no real solution to the problem.

What could kill my business outside of this obnoxious attempt?  The solutions are obvious, but they require huge amount of willpower from the people and the government on changing the way society in Korea is stuck together.

Cheers