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A Japanese research center conducted a survey on 1,000 to 1,500 Korean, American, Japanese and Chinese high school students and found 50.4 percent of Korean students said success in life was measured by wealth. Only 33 percent of Japanese students, 27 percent of Chinese students and 22.1 percent of American students said the same. According to the survey, 23.3 percent of Korean students said it was okay to make money through any means possible, which was much higher than the 21.2 percent of American, 13.4 percent of Japanese and 5.6 percent of Chinese students who agreed. The response "money can buy power and influence" was given by less than 30 percent of American, Japanese and Chinese high school students surveyed, but 54.3 percent of Korean students gave that answer.
A look at what's happening in our society now is all it takes to learn why our teenagers have grown to think this way. A business tycoon is under strong suspicion of amassing a slush fund and using it to bribe officials employed to investigate illegal acts. Last year, the head of a major business conglomerate ended up in jail after abducting bar workers and beating them up, creating a scene out of a gangster movie, in an attempt to avenge his son. Cases of fabricating academic achievements and plagiarizing research papers have become all too prevalent. And it wasn't long ago that business officials handed over huge sums of money to politicians in return for favors. These are the faces of society that teenagers watch as they grow up, believing that this is how the world really is.
If a society is dominated by the belief that getting rich is the ultimate goal in life, it means that the basic concepts of morality, rules and ethics that govern society have ceased to function. Two years ago, the National Youth Policy Institute of Korea asked teenagers in Korea, China and Japan what they would do if war broke out in their countries -- 41.1 percent of Japanese and 14.4 percent of Chinese students said they would fight, while only 10.2 percent of Korean students said the same. Only 1.7 percent of Japanese and 2.3 percent of Chinese students said they would flee their countries if war broke out, while that answer was given by 10.4 percent of Korean students. There are numerous instances of government ministers, vice ministers and lawmakers who have been exempted from the military draft for reasons that are hard to believe. These are things that would not happen in advanced countries.
The future of Korea depends on the beliefs held by our teenagers and how they grow up to become adults. Money is important, but there are other things that are more valuable and meaningful in life. A healthy society is one in which there is a clear sense of the importance of how one makes money, instead of just making money. The only way to get our teenagers to realize these values is for the leaders in our society to show them through their actions.
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