Opposition Lawmaker Hosts 'Basic Society' Seminar... "Not Detached from Economic Growth"

Seminar on "Basic Society and Economic Growth" Held on the 25th
"Universal Policies Revitalize Neighborhood Economies Compared to Other Policies"

Democratic Party lawmakers reinforced their push for basic society policies by supporting the claim that a basic society is not disconnected from economic growth with empirical examples.

The National Assembly Basic Society Forum held a seminar on the 25th with the theme "Basic Society and Economic Growth: The Role of Finance as Shown by the Livelihood Recovery Support Fund." Photo by Hwang Seoyul chestnut@

On the 25th, the National Assembly Basic Society Forum held a seminar titled "Basic Society and Economic Growth: The Role of Finance as Shown by the Livelihood Recovery Support Fund." Kim Young-hwan, a Democratic Party lawmaker who proposed the seminar, stated, "I hope this will be a time to summarize the effects of increasing the basic income of the people on economic growth."

The seminar was attended by Democratic Party members Kim, Park Joo-min, Lee Jae-gwan, Min Byung-duk, and Yong Hye-in from the Basic Income Party. The presentation was delivered by Kang Nam-hoon, chairman of the Basic Society Corporation, and the discussion featured Lim Kyu-bin from the Democratic Research Institute, Yoo Young-sung, senior researcher at the Gyeonggi Research Institute, and Kim Kyung-il, mayor of Paju City.

Chairman Kang emphasized the effectiveness of universal livelihood support policies (hereafter universal policies), such as local currency, in his presentation. According to the presentation, the consumption increase effect from universal policies was found to be about twice that of government construction expenditure.

Furthermore, universal policies raise the income of 16.97 million precarious workers and increase consumption in neighborhood economies. However, compared to policies supporting self-employed business owners’ utility bills, universal policies increase income only for the self-employed and have almost no effect on increasing neighborhood economy consumption.

Regarding selective support, which contrasts with universal policies, Chairman Kang criticized it, stating that it can cause stigmatization of low-income groups and a reversal of disposable income.

However, Chairman Kang suggested that if the ruling and opposition parties cannot narrow their differences among universal support, small business support, and selective support, one way could be to delegate the responsibility to basic local governments.

He said, "If the local government, which knows the neighborhood economy best, makes judgments and uses the funds appropriately according to the situation, I think the public will recall the experience of neighborhood commercial recovery during the 2020 universal disaster relief fund and respond positively to new government policies."

The case of Paju City, which is realizing a leading basic society city, was also introduced. Mayor Kim, who participated as a discussant, shared the example of issuing Paju Pay on the largest scale by investing 34.4 billion KRW last year.

Mayor Kim analyzed the economic feasibility and effectiveness, reporting that from January to September last year, compared to the same period the previous year, the total payment amount of Paju Pay increased by 52.4 billion KRW, the average monthly sales per affiliated store increased by 450,000 KRW, and payments by residents outside Paju City increased by 2.9 billion KRW.

He also introduced plans to establish a Paju-type public bank to promote basic loans for Paju citizens. The aim is to prevent the outflow of local capital and create a virtuous cycle in the local economy. Mayor Kim said, "I also think it might be worth pursuing a special law for public banks as a campaign pledge in the presidential election."

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