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Seven out of 10 people (69.2 percent) answered "We live without hopes" in a poll Korea Gallop recently conducted at the request of the Chosun Ilbo. Respondents opting for "We live with hope" accounted for only 28.7 percent. Those in their 40s, our backbone generation that mans our industrial front, are particularly pessimistic, with no less than 76.65 percent of them choosing "hopeless."
How have people become so pessimistic? The biggest factor is the economy, in which nine out of ten people expressed dissatisfaction. Asked if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the economic conditions, 49 percent of the people said "very dissatisfied," and 39.4 percent "somewhat dissatisfied." The proportion of respondents who cited economic growth as a problem that must be addressed most urgently reached 68.5 percent, 20 percentage points higher than the 48 percent registered in a July 1999 poll. It is probably because the people, who, in the wake of the 1997-98 financial crisis, took the recession as having hit the rockbottom, now suffer from an endless sense of unrest.
As a consequence, one in three people of the Republic of Korea says he wishes to leave the country for good. Responses opting for "I intend to emigrate if chances are given" reached 35.5 percent in the recent poll, showing a gradual rise from 13.9 percent in 1995, 22.5 percent in 2001 and 31.2 percent in 2003. More serious is that the percentage inclined to emigration is higher in young people, registering 47.5 percent with respondents in their 20s and 42 percent with those in their 30s. As nearly half of those in their 20s, who will lead the nation's future, wish to emigrate, who on Earth will take charge for the country's future? 84 percent of the people in their 20s are anxious about their employment and 73.9 percent of them replied that school education is of little practical use. Having given young people such despair, could we hope to see a wholesome country?
As an official or institution most responsible for the hopeless state of the country, the people cited in the order of the president (41.7 percent), the ruling party (21.5 percent) and the opposition party (11.8 percent). Two out of three people blame the president or the governing party for the state. Whenever an issue of economic crisis is raised, however, the president blames some newspapers for it, and a special presidential assistant calls on the media "to attain spiritual awakening." This is the summer of 2004 in the Republic of Korea.
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