what is essential to our current society

what is essential to our current society
I think the chronic insensitivity to safety in our society is a little contextual. [Three reasons to be with the socially disadvantaged]

- - 80% of life achievement is achieved by the state and parents
- Of course, Novules Oblige
- - The state determines half of the people's achievement
- - The low-income group's underachievement is largely due to the environment
- - Lost innovators are in the low income bracket
- - It is up to the state to excavate them
- - Helping children who are being abused is effective in preventing future crimes
- - Helping the socially disadvantaged is not a benefit. It's for all of us

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As I confessed in my book, The Moment When I Need Economics, I passed Yonsei University medical school last almost 30 years ago. I got my pass certificate after my freshman orientation. I was incredibly lucky. I closed the back door and went in, but managed to get good grades in college. "Why are the poor and uneducated sicker?" I started studying economics when I graduated from medical school. After finishing my public health doctor, I applied for a doctorate to study economics in earnest.

Achievement only with ability and effort?

Columbia University in the United States, which was the envy of students, is admitted to the top undergraduate programs of the best universities around the world. My grades were lower than those of them. However, a Korean professor was appointed to Columbia University that year and administered admission to the doctoral program. He judged that he would be an excellent student even if my medical school grades were a little low because the admission results of Korean medical schools were high. That's how my life changed once more.

He was hired as a professor at Cornell University, an Ivy League university, after completing his PhD. Four finalists are selected from among hundreds of applicants, and pressure interviews are conducted over three days. I remember the moments when my heart was about to burst, and the fact that I threw up what I ate because I was so nervous was a memory. I put everything into it, but my supervisor's role was crucial to my selection as a professor. When I was finishing my PhD, I took a sabbatical and went to Cornell University as a visiting professor. At that time, Cornell University tried to hire my supervisor, who highly recommended me instead.

My career was this succession of good luck. Luck followed. Someone else was there to help me at another important moment. Of course, as an economist, I am capable and have worked as hard as anyone. But there are many economists who are as capable and as hard as I am. My achievements cannot be fully explained by my ability and effort alone.

There is a widespread perception that our society must compensate according to its ability and achievement, and that it is fair. Success is a legitimate result of individual efforts, and failure is attributed to individual incompetence and lack of effort. Is that really true?

Most of life's accomplishments are given

Surprisingly, most of our achievements are given by luck. The first luck you encounter while being born is "where were you born?" Branko Milanovic, a World Bank-turned-economist, showed that a country of birth determines more than half of a lifetime's income. At least 50% of income can be predicted as an adult based on the average income and inequality index of the country of birth. If you are born in an underdeveloped country, you are unlikely to succeed, no matter how outstanding your ability is. We are lucky people just to be born in Korea.

The next luck you meet is your parents. Parents provide both genetic and environmental factors, so it is difficult to distinguish between the roles. Economists did a study comparing adopted children with their biological children. Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth University studied Korean children adopted in the United States through the Holt Child Welfare Foundation (Sacerdote, 2007). Adopted children are provided only with the environment by their parents, and biological children are provided with both genetic and environmental conditions. Using this point, the effect of genetics alone was revealed. He concludes that genetics account for about a third of income.

No one makes their own decisions about the country of birth and the parents. "80% of life achievement is luck" is not an exaggeration, as the country accounts for 50% or more of life achievement and genetics account for 30% or more. So is the other 20% our effort? But even the power we can make efforts is actually born with a large part and raised by our parents. And as you can see in my career, various good luck and misfortunes have a large impact on life achievement. Most of what determines our life achievement is outside of our control.  

Robert Frank, a professor at Cornell University, points out in his book Success and Luck that people who are very successful tend to believe that they have done everything themselves. The side effects are great. The more you believe that your own achievement has been achieved, the more hostile you are to paying taxes. I don't think the government and society have helped you much. And they perceive those who fail as those who have not tried rather than been unlucky. So they are passive in helping them.

However, this belief is not valid given the enormous influence the state has on individual achievements. More than 80% of what I am today is because of the community and other people. Therefore, the nobleys oblige is probably a given

In fact, from birth, many things are predetermined for individuals. However, from the perspective of the state, the state determines much of the achievement of the people. For example, a "rich, prosperous country" alone guarantees half of the people's achievement.

A winner-take-all society is also unhealthy if much of life is luck. It is up to the state to provide an environment where you can overcome the misfortunes of meeting your parents and the misfortunes of meeting them all throughout your life. It is also an important role of the state to share more evenly the misfortunes that have not been evenly divided.

Finding low-income innovators is up to the nation

Another reason we must work with the socially underprivileged is that the hidden Einstein, or innovators, in our society are concentrated in the low-income class. I am dated February 8, 2024