The Street Vendors

The Street Vendors

If you live in Korea, you can see and enjoy the street vendors anywhere, any places. We can get anything we want from the street vendors like a food, a cloth, a book, an accessories, and so on. Like this, the street vendors are became one of our national cultures.

However, there are some problems about street vendors. First of all, there are too many street vendors in Korea. Now, the street vendors don’t pay any taxes. So everybody can make a street vendor with small investment costs and they can be located any places because they don’t pay land tax. Some street vendors are blocking street. So people can feel uncomfortable when they pass that street. Also, it’s not that an attractive image for us because the street vendors left lots of trash like an oil, a paper and a food waste. These trashes are making the street dirty.

Second, the street vendors are selling an unhealthful food and unreliable products. The most street vendors sell a product of bad quality in cheap price. In addition, they are making food next to the road which has a lot of vehicle exhaust fumes. So they can’t make a fresh food and it’s not good for our health.

To solve this problem, I think the Government should control the street vendors. The street vendors should be located only restrict areas and allowed only for authorized vendors. Besides, the street vendors have to pay the tax. Then, the Government can control them easily and also the area can be attractive area for foreigners as well as local residents.

The Minimum Wage in Korea

The Minimum Wage in Korea

When I saw the graph of minimum wage of Korea, I really surprised by the fact that Korean minimum wage was the lowest among OECD-21. I have never thought about our minimum wage before I heard from the presenter. Even though the prices are rising continuously, the minimum wage has risen not that much. I think it doesn’t make any sense.

If you think the prices of any products, you will realize that the minimum wage is not enough for our lives. For example, when you buy a Big Mac Set in McDonald, you should pay for it ￦5,800. Also, there are more expensive berger-sets. However, the minimum wage in Korea is ￦4,320. It’s too low compared to meal costs even if it will rise up to ￦4,580.

Indeed, the price of housing is more serious. If you want to buy a house in Seoul, you should pay ￦17,000,000 per 1 pyeong(3.3m2). So when you buy a house of 33m2  in Seoul, you need to work for about 130,000 hours.

In addition, some companies don’t obey the minimum wage. Some people who work at a fast food store like McDonald, Berger King or construction site get less money than the minimum wage. The minimum wage is made for protect young and old people. So the government should check the owner is obeying the minimum wage.

I think to improve our lives and boost Korea’s national power the minimum wage has to be increased much more.

The Hybrid Car

I can get many advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid car during last class. I think the presenter told us about the hybrid car accurately and clearly. Especially, when I heard about high fuel efficiency and environmental-friendly of the hybrid car, I thought the hybrid car is really attractive. Moreover, the hybrid car can curb the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So I Think Driving the hybrid car reduces the greenhouse effect.

However, I realized that the hybrid car which is made for environmental-friendly car has heavy irony. The fact is discovered when we scrap the hybrid car. The hybrid car is changed into huge pollutants. Although we can recycle some scrap metals, hybrid car make about one ton of pollutants from the battery, lead and plastic in the hybrid car whenever it is scrapped. In addition, the hybrid car carries more pollutants than the normal car like a lithium-ion battery.

I think the car company brings only good things of the hybrid car. We should know both effects. Ultimately, the hybrid car for environment will be main cause of the environmental pollution.

Fortunately, today our car industry is growing really fast. A lot of engineers are developing the car technology as well as the hybrid. So I believe that we can drive environmental-friendly hybrid car without any problems about the environmental pollution in the near future. Otherwise, different cars will be replaced like an electric car and a solar car.

Redevelopment

I read a lot of news about Guryong Village and Jaegun Village in Gangnam-gu when I was preparing for my last week presentation. And I know that many people who lived there are still having difficulty. Especially, when I saw the damaged houses from the fire last summer, I felt sorry for them. The people who lived in the Jaegun Village didn’t have any ways to protect their house and had no ability to repair the damage. The only thing they could do was just watching their burning house. And some people died in a fire. It was an accident terribly fatal.

Now, many organizations are giving them the rice and water for helping the Jaegun residents. And the government is giving them the house in low rental fee. But a lot of people are still having in trouble. If we help them little bit, they can find the hope in this situation. For example, we can give them our old clothes, furniture and appliances that we don’t use anymore. If we take a look around, we can find a lot of stuff that can be useful for them. Moreover, we can do volunteer work directly. If we go to the Jaegun Village, we will find a lot of repair works.

Even though they lived in illegal houses for a long time and they don’t want to move other place, they have a right to get minimum means of livelihood.