Chapter 255

Chapter 255

Taek-gyu and I were going to go together, but Hyun-joo noona, who heard about it, also said to go together. Henry then quickly followed up, saying he would drive himself.

“I will do it.”

“… … .”

Anyone who sees it seems to be trying to train Hyunjoo noona.

We waited on the first floor for my sister to come down. Henry, who was tying his collar and hair with his hands, smiled shyly when I looked at him.

I said with a smile.

“I’m really glad that the two of you are doing well.”

“It’s all thanks to Jinhoo and Taekkyu.”

“What have we done?”

In the meantime, you’ve said many times that you’re going to help, but you haven’t really done anything, haven’t you?

“no. If I hadn’t invited you to the opening party of the Ceylon Hotel that day, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Well, it all happened that night. If it wasn’t, it might have taken me a while to open up my sister’s heart.

Taehyung nodded his head.

“Well then. It’s all thanks to us that the two of us did well Isn’t that right, buddy?”

“What… … .”

Thank you for thinking that way.

While we were talking, Hyunjoo noona came down.

Henry sat in the driver’s seat, Taek-gyu in the passenger seat, and Hyun-joo and I in the back seat.

To Taek-gyu’s question of why are you going together, the older sister answered.

“I heard that Professor Jang Se-myung became the head of the department last year, but I couldn’t even visit him. I would like to take this opportunity to meet and greet you.”

“Oh right. It must be the professor who taught me.”

“You can call me a teacher.”

Hyun-joo’s older sister, she’s a business major at a Korean university, so she’s obviously familiar with it.

“I wanted to listen to the professor’s lecture, but the competition for registration was no joke.”

“The lectures are quite interesting. Please listen to it when you return to school later.”

“Well, it’s easy to understand even for the general public.”

Anyway, can I go back to school?

said Henry.

“Professor Semyung Jang, I know. I was very impressed with the book that analyzed the British disease.”

He is a famous economist not only in Korea but also in the world. If he works in the financial world, he can’t know his name.

“‘From Grave to Cradle’?”

“Yes.”

As you can see from the title, it is a parody of ‘From Cradle to Grave’.

Professor Semyung Jang’s fame came from a book he published while he was writing a dissertation analyzing the British economy.

Since the 1960s, the UK faces a serious crisis as costs increase and labor productivity and product competitiveness decline. When they tried to freeze wages or cut costs, workers went on strike everywhere.

In Europe, it was even called the British disease. And it was Margaret Thatcher, who was called the Iron Lady, who cured this disease.

Thatcher reformed the public sector and carried out restructuring throughout the economy. When the union rose up against this, she put public power in and pushed it mercilessly.

Thanks to these policies, they achieved great results in overcoming the British disease and growing the economy, but the side effects were not formidable. That’s why her evaluation of her coping is still at odds.

In the book, Professor Se-myung Jang presented the causes of British disease, the process of overcoming it, and various side effects that are currently appearing in British society and ways to solve them.

‘From Grave to Cradle’ caused a sensation in the UK, and was later published in the US, Europe, and Korea.

When Professor Jang Se-myung said that he would return to Korea, he held onto it until he offered a tenure professorship at Cambridge.

However, in the end, he took up a professorship at a university in Korea, and while teaching students, he is actively working as an economist, writing dissertations and publishing books to analyze problems in the Korean economy and find solutions.

When she arrived at her destination, Taek-gyu asked as if thinking of something.

“Ah! You don’t know yet if it’s a son or a daughter

“I told you not to tell the doctor. It’s no fun if you know early.”

“Which one do you like better?”

“Both are fine.”

Even Henry said without asking.

“I’m all right.”

* * *

We arrived at the Seoseong Economic Research Institute in Gwanghwamun.

Several people were already gathered in the conference room. Chairman Im Jin-yong, who arrived first, greeted us and introduced the people.

“This is Director Kim Dae-young.”

Director Kim Dae-young greeted him.

“Nice to meet you, CEO Kang Jin-hoo. I always begged the president that I wanted to meet you once, but I finally got to meet him today.”

“Hello, Chief. I heard a lot.”

As an outstanding scholar, he was also in charge of analyzing the Asian market investment plan.

Chairman Im Jin-yong congratulated Henry and Hyun-joo’s older sister.

After a while, Professor Homin Kim, who developed the OTK battery, arrived, followed by Professor Myungjun Kim and Professor Semyung Jang.

Professor Jang Se-myung wore his glasses and had the appearance of a typical scholar with his hair neatly cut. He was actually in his early fifties, but apparently he appeared to be in his late forties.

He shook hands and laughed playfully.

“It’s nice to see CEO Kang Jin-hoo with a great reputation here.”

“Ever since I was a student, I have heard the professor’s reputation with a keen ear. I’ve read almost all the books you’ve written. Thank you for accepting the invitation.”

Hyunjoo noona greeted me warmly.

“Hello professor. I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Professor Jang Se-myung opened his eyes wide and was happy.

“Who is this? Oh Hyun-joo! how have you been?”

Hyunjoo’s older sister smiled.

“Yes. I should have found you earlier, but I’m sorry I’m late.”

“no. If you’re busy, it might be. A student in my department will become the Golden Gate Korea branch manager. Do you know how much I boasted to other professors that I was my student?”

Professor Myung-Jun Kim muttered to himself with a gloomy expression on his face.

“Well, my disciple is the CEO of OTK Company. The greatest investor of the 21st century, and the hero who saved America from a catastrophe.”

“… … .”

Please stop.

“Ah! I also saw the news that she was pregnant. congratulations. Maybe this one… … ?”

I turned to Henry next to Professor Jang Se-myung’s gaze. I wondered what Hyunjoo noona would introduce.

Are you trying to call me the child’s father or cohabitation?

Henry also looked like he was expecting something. Hyunjoo noona said comfortably.

“Yes. This will be my husband.”

Henry’s expression brightened with those words. He spoke in Korean.

“nice to meet you. This is Henry. It is an honor to meet you, Professor.”

After saying goodbye, we each sat down.

I sought the opinion of Professor Se-myung Jang on the situation in Korea’s manufacturing industry. Before coming here, I sent the industrial complex plan by e-mail, so you probably have been reviewing it.

A normal person might have been nervous and trembling, but he had an expression that said nothing was wrong. After all, I’ve attended and lectured at conferences and conferences where world-class economists gather, so it wouldn’t be so awkward to have a place like this.

“If I could sum up the current problem of the Korean economy in one word, it is polarization. The polarization represented by large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises, regular and non-regular workers, and metropolitan areas and rural areas is severe. This problem must be addressed in order for the economy to continue to grow.”

What is important in the economy is profit, not justification. Many economists argue that we need to increase the middle class and reduce polarization and income inequality, not because it is right, but because it is beneficial.

When polarization deepens, social unrest increases, costs occur, and economic growth declines. Conversely, as the middle class increases, consumption and savings increase. This is also the reason why most countries are aiming for a welfare state.

Chairman Im Jin-yong asked.

“Is the solution a solidarity wage system?”

The basic concept of the solidarity wage system is equal pay for equal work.

This is not something that Professor Jang Se-myung first brought up, but it has been discussed among various experts for a long time.

The country that has done this is Sweden.

Sweden, like all European countries, suffered from severe chaos and economic crisis after World War II.

At this time, Tage Erlander, who assumed the post of Prime Minister, proposed equal pay for equal work, and reached an agreement between the tripartite parties through long dialogue and persuasion.

Equal pay for equal work means to be paid equal wages for equal work.

In this way, the profits of industries with high productivity will increase, but companies and industries with low productivity will automatically collapse because they cannot afford wages, and a large number of unemployment occurs.

For this reason, various welfare policies were implemented at the same time. Through this, workers who were dismissed from low-productivity jobs received vocational training and were re-employed in high-productivity companies.

Thanks to this, Swedish manufacturing was still able to survive competition from the United States, Japan, and Germany.

“As in Sweden, the solidarity wage system can only be supported by the system of society as a whole. Therefore, it is unreasonable to apply it to Korea right now. However, within an industrial complex, it is fully feasible. And if we succeed, we can gradually expand to other places.”

In the past, the wage gap between large corporations and SMEs was not very large.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

The difference was about 20% to say the least. But now, double is the standard, and in severe cases, it is tripled or quadrupled. If various welfare benefits are included here, the gap becomes much larger.

In particular, in the case of automobiles, the jobs of large corporations and SMEs’ factories are generally similar. Nevertheless, the reason the wage gap continues to widen is that large corporations monopolize most of the profits.

The bargaining power of individual firms is, of course, superior to large firms. The larger the conglomerate, the greater the bargaining power, so the share of SMEs continues to decrease.

In the end, if this is left as it is, the wage gap will inevitably widen in the future.

“The solidarity wage means that the money earned by a company is evenly distributed between the prime contractor and the subcontractor according to a certain ratio and principle. In this way, there is no need for the main office to put pressure on the unit price, and workers don’t care whether they work for a large company or a small company. The pay you get is the same anyway.”

Assume that there are a large company as a principal contractor, a small and medium-sized company as a subcontractor, and a non-regular worker. Based on Eunsung’s car, they receive 95 million won (Eunsung’s), 45 million won (primary supplier), and 25 million won (in-house non-regular worker and tertiary supplier), respectively.

In the end, it can be said that the wages received by the silver-sex worker took the share of the other workers.

The solidarity wage system aims to reduce the gap as much as possible to 60 million won, 50 million won, and 45 million won by linking their wages.

In this way, large enterprises can reduce strikes by individual unions and obtain the effect of coexistence with subcontractors, while SMEs can secure competitiveness and develop their own technologies. And this, in turn, leads to improved productivity.

It is good that a company is guaranteed a fair wage and stable operation, and it is good that workers can get a good job. It is good that the state can collect corporate tax, and local governments are good that the local economy is revitalized by increasing jobs.

So who the hell hates this good thing?

Of course, these are workers who are already members of the unions of large corporations. They don’t want to have regular workers doing similar jobs for lower wages.

In a nutshell, since you receive 100 million won, the company should not hire you with an amount less than that. (It doesn’t matter how much you receive for non-regular workers and subcontractors)

For this reason, even though the discussion has been around for a long time, the discussion has not progressed even one step due to opposition from the union.

So who can do this?

Those who have the capital and technology to invest in Korea, but are free from the influence of existing labor unions as much as possible, can do this.

That’s me. OTK Company does not have a factory in Korea, and there are only a few dozen directly hired employees.

Director Kim Dae-young said.

“If you ask Eunsung Cha to participate, there is a high probability that the union will rise up. Neither will the two major labor unions stand still.”

Chairman Im Jin-yong looked at me and said.

“I will eat a lot of cursing.”

Of course, the arrows of criticism will be poured on the OTK company leading the project.

Taek-gyu patted my shoulder and said.

“It’s okay. It doesn’t happen in a day or two for him to curse. I’m used to it now and it won’t matter. Is not it?”

“… … .”

No, I’m hurt too.