The Effects of the Global Nature of Consumption

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Colonial Korea
Korea under US and USSR Occupation
Contemporary Korea
Works Cited

Introduction

One of the main roles of culture is the consumption of goods. In a way, consumption leads to capitalism that people produce and sell their goods for progress and prosperity. In most cases, the more people produce and sell, the richer they become. Thus, a prosperous society is the one that produces and consumes more.

The gross national product (GNP) measures the economic growth of a particular country realized through production and selling of goods and services. GDP measures how successful a society has become through consumerism. Nevertheless, in order to produce, develop and consume goods, people must extract natural resources; then construct factories and industrial complexes.

These factories will then produce goods for consumption. Research shows that the cultural context of a society defines its consumption. Perhaps this is the reason why consumption patterns of people do not change. Notably, consumption patterns form part of people’s lives hence, to overhaul it, people must be willing to leave their cultural practices including economic disarticulation. For example, when consumption drops, countries experience economic recession coupled with massive unemployment.

The paper examines the effect of consumption in Korea from the colonial era to the contemporary era. The economic growth of Korea has a long history due to the shift of regimes. Each regime had its own culture of consumption hence, economic growth. It is imperative to note that consumption leads to economic growth.

In Korea, regime shifts divides its economic growth in three phases: Malthusian stagnation period that ended in 1910 when Japan took control of Korea; the colonial era that saw Korea board on its economic growth; and the contemporary period where consumption increased thus raising the living standards of many South Koreans. On the other hand, the contemporary period characterize North Korea with low consumption rates leading to diseases and starvation (Cha, 731-741).

Colonial Korea

The Chosồn dynasty ruled the colonial Korea between 1392 and 1910. During this period, Koreans trailed on commercialized peasant market, capitalistic in nature, through its imposition of taxes on various consumable products. In addition, the dynasty forced people to enter into labour in order to offer service to the dynasty.

Nonetheless, the dawn of the seventeenth century became instrumental in terms of changing the culture of consumption in Korea. The invasion of Korea by armies from Japan and China opened a new era of consumption in Korea by shattering the dominant command system and instead, replaced it with market economy where people produce and sell commodities.

Rice and cotton were the main commodities consumed by Koreans. Therefore, the fallen bureaucracy resorted to taxation of these commodities and as time went by, they started minting copper coins paramount in trade. Ironically, this war led to slavery where the regime forced labour on the citizenry hence, the inception of labour markets (Cha, 748-754).

However, it took a long time for markets to integrate fully. For example, there was low consumption of grain commodities in Korea than in China or Japan. As a sign of relieve to agricultural markets, the population in Korea increased fast notwithstanding the war. Unfortunately, this trend in demographics came to a halt due to increased mortality. There came the nineteenth century when capitalism slowly started to usher in Korea.

While the rich increased their profits and investments, the poor Koreans shrank in abject poverty forcing then to relocate to northern China. Due to low wages and expanded government deficits, living standards worsened. Nevertheless, slowly by slowly, the trends of capitalism were opening the new gates to homogenization where people all over the world can use the same consumerist goods such as cars, airplanes and technological equipments. Nevertheless, many people do not subscribe to homogenization due to cultural pluralism.

The increased population growth meant that consumption would increase. In fact, there was rapid deforestation in Korea as many people destroyed forest reserves to grow crops for sustainability. Consequently, there arose many adverse effects, the intensity of flooding increased tremendously destroying the crops in the farm.

The rich peasant farmers continued in their individualism and forfeited any act of repairing damages caused by floods. Instead, they relied on the dynasty government to retrieve the condition. Eventually, capitalism ensued. The rich landed families liaised with local leaders to manage and control resources. Soon, the state became a tool of exploiting the poor while serving the rich.

For instance, the provincial administrators took bribes from rich merchants and assigned then land on fertile reservoirs to practice their farming. The poor peasants remained in their unfertile and flood-affected zones reaping low yields. At times, there came periods of drought. Since peasant farmers relied on rice production, the situation disallowed further progress. They therefore had to seek new modalities of producing rice, maybe through irrigation or planting drought resistant rice variety (Ban, 95-118).

A sinister scenario occurred in 1894 when provincial administrators imposed taxation to farmers using waterways to irrigate their rice farms. These peasant farmers were the one who constructed these reservoirs and any intention to impose fees on them was likely to meet rebellion. Gradually, there ensued uprising between farmers and provincial administrators.

The uprising grew into a nationwide mutiny forcing the dynasty government to seek military support from China and Japan aimed at quelling the chaos. The rebellion did not end without consequences. Although the combatant troops from China and Japan managed to quell the chaos, the two countries fought on the Korea soil (Sino-Japanese war) aimed at introducing capitalistic policies in this foreign land. Nevertheless, Japan triumphed over China and eventually took control of power in Korea.

They culture of consumption in the colonial Korea forced farmers to engage in other farming activities, as the drought could not support their paddy lands. Some people abandoned their farms and instead resorted to handicraft and commerce. The era of proto-industrialization was creping in slowly thus abhorring the colonial culture. As noted earlier, consumption changes only by adopting new culture (Haggard, 857-881).

Korea under US and USSR Occupation

The increase in the global nature of consumption leads to economic development and capitalism. Japan was now controlling economic affairs of Korea. For instance, in 1876, Japan liberalized trade in Korea. The fight for supremacy over Korea did not stop here. This was happening during the time when USSR dominated many sectors of the world economy.

However, the war between Japan and Russia in 1905 saw Japan triumph over Russia and annex Korea. Later on, they established a developmental sate to replace the rapacious bureaucracy of the Choson dynasty. The new developmental state-Meiji- aimed to introduce new measures on consumption aimed at modernizing Korea. The very first thing done by the new regime was to improve infrastructure by constructing railway lines and building roads and highways for easier communication.

This improved the delivery of goods into national and international markets thus setting the path for globalization. It is important to note that the development of infrastructure, media and communications lead to globalization. Furthermore, the rapidity of movement of people and goods both nationally and internationally marks a step towards globalization where consumerism is dominant.

When everything becomes global, then societies are approaching homogenization, of course through consumption. Nevertheless, some societies fear globalisation due to its influence on economic and cultural life, habitually shored up by political intrigues. For instance, when it comes to globalisation of liberal capitalism and modernisation of culture, debate ensues on its importance and practicability. The involvement of United States and USSR on Korea occupation had everything to do with globalisation.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, two fronts surfaced in the Korea peninsula, one supported by United States and the other by Russia (USSR). At this point, there were two regions in Korea: north and south. The military government of United States took control on southern Korea, while the USSR captured the northern half of Korea.

This de-colonisation and political dissection of Korea had serious negative trade impact. For instance, trade ties between Korea and Japan broke up leading to a serious economic downturn. On the other hand, it was not easy for the two regimes to control the chaos on the ground even by economic support. In the southern Korea, the United States military government took over all properties initially possessed by the government of Japan.

Two countries had emerged from the colonial Korea: South Korea and North Korea. The USSR favoured communism, while United States supported capitalism. These two ideologies determined the level of success of these two countries. Nevertheless, as witnessed later, South Korea became prosperous leaving North Korea to limp in poverty, diseases and economic depression for a long time (Eckert, 8-32).

In 1948, the U.S military government allowed South Korea to establish its own independent regime. This regime went ahead to ensure egalitarianism exists through fair distribution of resources like land. Nevertheless, two years later, war broke out between South Korea and North Korea where over 1.5 million people lost their lives and property worth billions of dollars destroyed and economies humbled to the ground. However, this did not stop South Korean policymakers form seeking other mechanisms to jumpstart the economy.

For example, these policy makers resorted to reinstate the culture of consumption by investing in industrial firms. Additionally, the government established financial institutions to buy foreign currencies, and enable investors to borrow money from them at lower interest rates. In order to promote local consumption of goods and services, the government imposed heavy tariffs on imported goods. In a way, this promoted local manufacturing industries and increased the consumption of local goods.

However, this Republic never lived to see her polices reach fruition. In particular, one of its policies, import-substitution industrialisation (ISI), caused its downfall. Some entrepreneurs resorted to dubious moneymaking methods like (DUP), which later led to economic stagnation (Haggard, Byung-kook and Chung-In, 850-873).

In May 1961, a military coup led by General Park Chung Hee took over from the first Republic, and based its strategy of economic growth on exporting, export promotion (EP). Nevertheless, this regime never derelict the ISI strategy commenced the first government. EP appeared to be more efficient in tackling consumption than ISI as many firms increased their productivity to compete in the expansive global market.

Research shows that the consumption rates of Korea increased by 50 percent, resulting to the increase in per capita income. In 1970, there came a fresh test for the second republic regime. The U.S troops had withdrawn form Vietnam following its controversial involvement (Kang, 98-110).

South Korea had established itself as a strong government able to protect its citizenry amid threats from the communist regime of North Korea. At this instant, Park Chung decides to reduce the reliance of U.S military to fight the communist government.

He instead proposed a policy that would see South Korea produce ammunitions for its protection by resorting to ISI, and build heavy chemical industries (HCI). To support the project, financial banks had to offer money for the construction of these industries. Sadly, economic repression, soaring debts hit the country leading to financial crisis and fall of the regime (Kimura, 69-86).

Contemporary Korea

The assassination of Park Chung marked the end of the second republic regime, and yet the commencement of the third one that promised trade liberalization in order to spearhead consumption and foster economic growth. Since that period, the economic growth of South Korea has increased rapidly making it one of the developed countries in the world. This is because many South Koreans consume local productive inputs as per their culture.

The South Koreans embarked in production of their natural resources into finished commodities thus reducing the dependency ratio. The contemporary South Korea is a prosperous country idealistically as symbolized by its fast economic growth, accumulated human capital and low mortality (Noland, 16-36).

On the other hand, the contemporary North Korea characterizes with low consumption rates hence, poor economic growth. This is because after the Korean War, the regime elites resorted to a strategy of forcing the citizenry to save, but never worked out. Furthermore, people who wanted to invest failed to do so as the little money they have would not sustain the desired productivity. Consequently, there is a status quo on consumption. Communism had also dealt a blow to capitalism paramount to homogenization of culture.

For instance, its isolation from the international community has made it difficult to acquire the necessary technologies imperative in production. Additionally, this has left out North Korea from participating in international trade and foreign investment. On the other hand, the current North Korea regime had made serious economic errors for example, diverting national resources into despotic and militaristic emancipation, while leaving its citizenry languishing in poverty (Young, 641-680).

Following the disintegration of USSR, the contemporary world has become politically unfriendly, where United States controls everything from culture to politics to military. For example, both North and South Koreans now consume the Western movies. The South Koreans can access Hollywood documentaries and in exchange, sell theirs in Western markets.

Some brands from South Africa, United States and Europe form part of the Korean consumerist culture. Even as communities identify themselves with consumer cultures (multiculturalism), people ought to understand how capitalism plays a role in shaping cultural and social backgrounds and produce a homogeneous society.

In North Korea and South Korea, USSR and Unites States instilled State Capitalism, where resources belonged to the government on behalf of the citizenry. Importantly, people cannot consume products minus producing them. In order to produce goods, people ought to invest capital and then expect profit. However, the misuse of capitalism leads to oppression where few people control the economy of countries.

Some dynamics of capitalism appear similar to homogenization in that the power of consumption determines where the rich or poor shop consumer goods. Here, people will find other alternatives of consumer metrics and integrate them into their own life. Nevertheless, people cling to their cultural and religious backgrounds so that they do not become mere consumers homogenized by consumer goods. Thus, geographical rootedness and multiculturalism are the biggest barriers to homogenization (Amaladoss, p.1).

Works Cited

Amaladoss, Michael. Global homogenization: can local cultures survive? 2010. Web.

Ban, Sung. Agricultural Growth in Korea: In Agricultural Growth in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines. (2^nd ed.). Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. 1979. Print.

Cha, Myung. Imperial Policy or World Price Shocks? Explaining Interwar Korean Consumption Trend. Journal of Economic History 58(3), 1998, 731-754.

Eckert, Carter. Offspring of Empire: The Koch’ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945. Seattle: Washington University Press. 1991. Print.

Haggard, Stephan, Byung-kook, Kim and Chung-in, Moon. The Transition to Export-led Growth in South Korea: 1954-1966. Journal of Asian Studies, 50(4), 1991, 850-873.

Haggard, Stephan. Japanese Colonialism and Korean Development: A Critique. World Development, 25, 1997, 867-881.

Kang, Kenneth. Why Did Koreans Save So Little and Why Do They Now Save So Much? International Economic Journal, 8, 1994, 99-111.

Kimura, Mitsuhiko. From Fascism to Communism: Continuity and Development of Collectivist Economic Policy in North Korea. Economic History Review, 52 (1), 1999, 69-86.

Noland, Marcus. Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas. Washington: Institute for International Economics. 2000. Print.

Young, Alwyn. The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110 (3), 1995, 641-680.

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