[Viewpoint] Is This Policy or Politics?

Professor Kim Hong-beom, Department of Economics, Gyeongsang National University

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” This is a short prayer by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. It is a masterpiece that evokes awe and emotion in the reader, with a beautiful logical structure. How about the following phrase from President Moon Jae-in’s inauguration speech in May 2017? “(In the new government) opportunities will be equal. The process will be fair. The outcome will be just.” This politically inspired declaration greatly encouraged the public’s will to live at the time. Although it is no less beautiful than Niebuhr’s prayer, how many citizens today, three and a half years later, still feel their hearts race at this declaration?

Let us recall the famous saying of Alfred Marshall, the mentor of John Maynard Keynes: “A cold head and a warm heart.” It means that for an economist to create proper policies, one must harmoniously possess both the head (reason) and the heart (emotion). More broadly, it implies that policy, which belongs to the realm of reason and science, and political ideology, which belongs to the realm of emotion and philosophy, must interact appropriately to produce desirable public policies. In fact, over the past several years, the Moon Jae-in administration’s “warm heart” (political ideology) has not received any help from the “cold head” (policy expertise). Or rather, it did not even try to receive such help. So how could any proper public policy have been possible?

The political ideology pursued by the head of a nation’s government naturally serves as a guide for public policy. However, the core of policy lies in expertise. This is why policy must be differentiated from politics. The total chaos in our society today, brought about by the three and a half years of the Moon administration, can be summed up as “the tyranny of politics over public policy.”

First, the Moon administration’s flagship economic policy, income-led growth (Soju-seongjang), was weak from the start in its empirical premises, was based on self-serving logic, and its results have been minimal so far. Last month’s National Assembly audit was embroiled in controversy over statistical manipulation. Apart from the distributionist ideology that aims to rapidly raise the minimum wage and increase indiscriminate welfare spending, it is difficult to find empirical evidence or scientific causality in this policy. Yet the government neither admits failure nor abandons the policy. At this point, it is obvious whether Soju-seongjang is a policy or merely a political slogan.

The real estate policy, which has become a patchwork after more than twenty successive stopgap measures, is no different. From the beginning, the government focused solely on eradicating “speculation,” a term difficult to define. The government’s consistent claim was that this was necessary to stabilize housing prices and rent prices. What is the reality today? Housing prices and rents have soared day after day for years. Those without homes suffer from housing difficulties, and those with homes suffer from tax bombs. Yet the government insists that this is not a policy failure. Even while clearly witnessing the widening wealth gap caused by repeated patchwork measures. Is it because the government has no reason to refuse real estate “politics,” which is highly “just” in its aim to eradicate speculation and even provides ammunition (tax revenue) to achieve so-called “equal distribution” to the fullest?

These days, South Korea is overflowing with large and small “these.” Expansionary fiscal policy (Korean New Deal), nuclear phase-out, the three lease laws, expansion of public healthcare (public medical schools) ? all are policies in name only, filled with ideology inside, leaving little room for expertise or consensus. It is truly an unbelievable historical regression.

Now, hope lies solely with the people. All citizens must deeply realize the importance of freedom, autonomy, rationality, and democracy. The social reason that has quietly faded away must be restored. Hundreds of years ago, the Enlightenment opened the door to sustained prosperity for humanity. The substantial restoration of Enlightenment values, which have only left traces in recent years, is an urgent task that each of our citizens must personally practice in this era.

Kim Hong-beom, Professor of Economics, Gyeongsang National University

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