Yong Hye-in and Hwang Kyo-ik respond to Lim Jong-seok criticizing Lee Jae-myung: "The Pope did support basic income"

Last year, the Special Committee on Income-Led Growth organized a policy forum

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] As the debate over Lee Jae-myung's 'basic income' intensifies, Basic Income Party lawmaker Yong Hye-in and columnist Hwang Kyo-ik have consecutively directly refuted former Presidential Secretary Im Jong-seok, saying, "The Pope clearly emphasized that basic income is a necessary system."

Earlier, on the 10th, former Secretary Im Jong-seok made his opposition clear to Governor Lee's introduction of basic income through Facebook, stating, "What the Pope proposed was not basic income but a living wage system."

On the 11th, Lawmaker Yong Hye-in wrote on Facebook, "I read well the post by former Secretary Im Jong-seok mentioning Pope Francis's Easter message last year," and began, "He translated the Pope's 'salario universale' literally and said it is close to our country's 'living wage system,' but I have a different view."

Yong especially explained, "The Pope said in his writing that people who are not employed in regular jobs, such as 'various care providers,' should also have a basic income," adding, "This is different from the living wage system, which can only be received once employed in the public sector, etc."

He also advised former Secretary Im, saying, "The Pope later clearly expressed support for the idea of basic income in his book 'LET US DREAM,' and I hope the word 'wage' is not interpreted narrowly."

He added, "The 'citizen's wage' movement that took place in Finland in the 1970s referred to universal basic income."

Furthermore, Lawmaker Yong said, "This is not about who interpreted the Pope's words better," and advised, "As former Secretary Im said, you cannot achieve 'the right to work' by excluding basic income, and human dignity cannot be protected by jobs and living wages alone without basic income."

He especially stated, "If someone claims to be the next generation leader of the Republic of Korea, they should step away from factional logic such as ruling-opposition, democracy-anti-democracy, pro-Moon-anti-Moon, and answer the question, 'How do we guarantee human dignity regardless of labor?'" adding, "I believe the core of the new social contract we must form amid this rapid social change is 'basic income.' The methods of securing funding, timing of introduction, and payment scale can be worked out together to find the best way."

Columnist Hwang Kyo-ik also targeted former Secretary Im directly through Facebook on the same day, saying, "The Pope mentioned both basic income and basic wage," and "It would be wrong for former Secretary Im to say that only the basic wage was mentioned."

He continued, "The Pope engages in worldly affairs based on religious reflection," emphasizing, "We should not take his words as a political decree and think, 'The Pope said basic wage, not basic income, so basic income should not be done.' Korea is not a medieval European theocratic state."

He then posted an article written by the internet ID 'Saenggakgongjang' on Facebook.

The ID 'Saenggakgongjang' wrote on Facebook, "Former Secretary Im Jong-seok says that what the Pope mentioned was 'not basic income but basic wage.' He refuted Governor Lee Jae-myung's claim that 'the Pope also supports basic income!' like this. So I googled 'Pope Francis's view on Basic income,' and many articles say the Pope mentioned both basic income and basic wage," criticizing, "It seems former Secretary Im Jong-seok cannot use Google."

Former Secretary Im previously expressed a negative stance on basic income and entered the debate through Facebook on the 8th.

He argued, "Governor Lee Jae-myung wants to start immediately with 1 million KRW per person annually. While about 52 trillion KRW is needed for the budget, the amount per citizen is 83,300 KRW per month," and added, "To pay the 500,000 KRW per month that Governor Lee proposes as a mid-to-long-term goal, about 317 trillion KRW in budget is required. Even though 500,000 KRW per month is still ridiculously insufficient for living expenses, an enormous scale of tax increase is already necessary. This easily explains why it was rejected in Switzerland," clearly stating that basic income is premature.

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