The fall of self-employed people is especially serious in Korea, evidenced by the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) statement this September that nearly 200 thousand self-employed people closed down their stores. Some argue that these people should get into large corporations instead, as private businesses have little competitive power over major businesses. However, self-employers have no choice but to get a loan to start their own company, due to saturation of the employment market and high unemployment rates.

 

It is indeed the freedom of choice for people to choose where they want to get their services from, whether it is a private or major business. However, the gravity of this issue lies beneath the fact that the collapse of self-employers could lead to the fall of the middle class. According to the NSO, the loans of self-employers are much higher than those of others from the middle class, and many of them are going out of business even before they can repay the borrowed money. If the middle class that makes up a large portion of the entire population falls, the economy as a whole might crumble too.

 

Therefore, the government should take steps to at least slow down the pace at which self-employers are falling. Although proper education is necessary in every situation, an education program that the government can be responsible for taking charge of during and after the process should be established. In other words, unlike job fairs that simply end without changing the core of the management problems of the self-employers, a program that will be able to successfully provide consultation to people in the future is needed.

 

In fact, the Small Enterprise and Market Service recently announced a project named “Hope Return Package” intended to help self-employers who have already failed in their private business and hope to start another one in a successful way. However, it is indeed a problem that the private business managers are not fully aware of this program and it is still early to actually judge whether the program will aid self-employers in reality.

 

Although the biggest obstacle for private businesses in competition with large franchises, and putting regulations on these major companies will help self-employers the most, such measures are hard to execute in a capitalistic society. Instead, the government should actively take part in helping self-employers gain independence by planning and promoting practical establishment programs. Although Korean society still has a long way to go, the self-employers might at least have a chance to compete with the large corporations based on an innovative business plan assisted by the government.