[Desk Column] Before the Personnel Changes

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Pil-su] I posted news about another company's voluntary retirement on the department's group chat on social networking service (SNS). It mentioned that voluntary retirement would be accepted for those born before 1976, and usually, even if various comments are posted, the members' reactions are lukewarm, but this time the response was hot. The reason for the heated reaction was quickly revealed. Since I accidentally shared only the content without mentioning which company it was about, the members were on high alert, thinking it might be about our company. Naturally, the senior members' reactions were even more intense.

It is the year-end personnel season. News about CEOs in their 40s at large corporations and executives in their 30s dominates the pages. Their exceptional careers and achievements are highlighted, and the article ends with the obvious clich? that companies aim for change and innovation through them. On the opposite side of those receiving the spotlight are those who hand over their positions and step down. Personally, it is regrettable, but those who finish their careers as executives after decades of work are relatively better off. The reality is that most workers, who must worry about retirement from their mid-40s, have more concerns than expectations during the personnel season.

According to the '2020 Middle-aged and Elderly Administrative Statistics' released by Statistics Korea on the 21st, among 20,086,000 middle-aged people aged 40 to 64, 8,667,000 (43.1%) owned a home. Among them, 155,800 (7.8%) owned two or more houses. This means only about 4 out of 10 people own a house, and multi-homeowners are less than one in ten. The proportion of homeowners with a publicly announced property price exceeding 600 million KRW was 9.6% (829,000) of all middle-aged homeowners. Roughly 4 out of 100 own a house valued at over 600 million KRW.

In recent years, as housing prices have skyrocketed, there has been much noise about real estate-related taxes. News about rising housing prices is followed by a barrage of news about tax bombs. When articles about apartment prices or official property price increases come out, tax bomb articles automatically follow. Few people like paying taxes. The proverb that taxes are scarier than tigers exists for a reason. In some cases, the tax system can be unreasonable.

One can raise objections to such unfairness. Those who pay high taxes naturally have the right to be protected. That is why they pay taxes. Achieving outstanding results and rising to high positions is also worthy of applause. However, more than half of those who have retired or are about to retire are homeowners. The average income of middle-aged people last year was 36.92 million KRW. It increased by 3.2% compared to the previous year, but their debt increased by 7.1%. Their average loan amount was 52 million KRW. The average income of middle-aged people without homes was only 28.94 million KRW.

It is the year-end season when 'Christmas carols' and Salvation Army bells ring. Perhaps it is time to pay attention to the low-income people without homes rather than the tax concerns of homeowners. In response to the argument that having one house does not make one rich amid the comprehensive real estate tax controversy, I would like to answer this way: If you are among the less than 4 out of 100, you can be considered rich.

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