"Would You Go Out to Eat Immediately Just Because They Give You Money?" Kim Yong-tae Criticizes 'Disaster Basic Income'

Kim Yong-tae, Member of the Future United Party / Photo by Jin-hyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Shinwon Yoon] Kim Yong-tae, a member of the Future United Party, recently criticized the opposition's claim that a 'disaster basic income' of 1 million won per person should be provided to stabilize livelihoods amid the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), saying "the answer is tax cuts, not income."

On the 11th, Kim said on his Facebook, "We must do whatever it takes to prevent economic collapse, but we need to accurately understand the essence of the market mechanism and provide concentrated support like a laser to where it is needed. Providing disaster basic income is an idea that ignores the market, like the mask shortage that forgot the market, and it does not help prevent economic decline at all."

He argued, "Now is not the time to come up with consumption stimulation measures that are not even possible," adding, "In a situation where people refrain from economic activities and even going out, it is unlikely that people will immediately go out and restaurants will be packed with customers just because disaster basic income is provided."

He continued, "We must prevent key market players such as self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises from being forcibly eliminated from the market to maintain the big framework of the market mechanism," and said, "We should implement tax cut policies such as corporate tax and value-added tax that can provide immediate and priority assistance to the self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises suffering the most from the COVID-19 crisis. The scale of tax cuts can be even larger than what Kim Kyung-soo, governor of Gyeongnam, Park Won-soon, mayor of Seoul, and Lee Jae-myung, governor of Gyeonggi, have proposed."

Kim also stated, "Rather, those whose income has decreased will prioritize debt repayment or savings, and this can be seen from how the helicopter money tax distribution policy adopted by the Japanese government during a long recession failed," adding, "It may be more effective to use such resources to prioritize support for the most vulnerable groups."

Earlier, following Lee Jae-myung, governor of Gyeonggi Province, on the 6th, Kim Kyung-soo, governor of Gyeongnam Province, proposed disaster basic income on the 8th, and on the 10th, Park Won-soon, mayor of Seoul, suggested providing disaster basic income with certain restrictions.

Lee proposed providing disaster basic income in the form of local currency, Kim suggested giving 1 million won per person to all citizens and proposed this to the government and National Assembly, and Mayor Park proposed to the government the implementation of 'emergency disaster living expenses support,' including giving 600,000 won worth of gift certificates to households below the national median income.

In response, Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, stated, "We have considered providing disaster basic income, but although there are many advantages, there are also many problems, so I think it is difficult to easily agree."

However, he said, "Rather than giving cash to all citizens indiscriminately because they are struggling, in this supplementary budget, we aimed to provide support mainly to those in difficulty, such as basic livelihood security recipients, medical protection recipients, and housing protection recipients, in the form of consumption coupons or special care coupons according to their nature."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.