Leave the Beer Alone!

In December 2014, the Seoul High Court ruled that forcing large retail stores to close two Sundays every month was illegal because (1) the law limited consumers' right to choose where to shop and that (2) there was no evidence to suggest that the law actually helped small retailers or traditional markets.

For a while, I was hopeful that there might have been some sense in Korean courts. However, the Supreme Court made sure that common sense and critical thinking stayed dead and buried when they overruled the Seoul High Court and sided with local municipalities.

According to the Korea Times, one of the justices said,

"A regulation for the public good is not only important but also necessary. However, it can hardly be seen as depriving consumers of their right to choose as large retailers do not need protection."

Don't ask me how that makes any sense.

Of course, this is not the only instance of the government meddling in the economy that has screwed over consumers.

The Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act has shackled all telecom companies to offer the same discounts to their customers, thus forcing people to pay more for their smartphones.

The Book Discount Law prevents retail bookstores from selling books at a discount any higher than 15%.

And a year ago, the Korean government was mulling the International Direct Purchase Law; a proposed law, which would have regulated how much, how, and what individual consumers would have been able to purchase from international websites such as Amazon or eBay.

But now someone has really messed up. Now there are rumors that the government plans to regulate discounts of imported beer.

Let's be frank. Shutting down large retail stores two Sundays out of a month is no big deal. People can plan ahead or just shop online. Making smartphones more expensive pissed off some people, but thankfully smartphones are becoming cheaper anyway. As for books, who reads books? And regulating online foreign purchases sound like it would be easy to skirt around.

But mess with beer? Do they not know what country they're governing? There has been debate about the accuracy of the claim that Koreans drink more than anyone else in the world. but it's without doubt that Koreans are heavy drinkers.

So dear Korean government, you done goofed. If you think the protests have been violent so far, wait until every single pissed off salaryman joins the fray. There will be hell to pay!

So if you know what's good for you, for God's sake, leave the beer alone!

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Smart Sheriff and the New Normal

Laws are usually passed with the best of intentions. For example, even the most controversial laws such as Korea's National Security Act and the United States' Patriot Act were passed with the intention of protecting the country from enemies, spies, saboteurs, and terrorists.

Of course, how those laws get misinterpreted and/or abused are abundant for all to see.

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Recently, the Korean government funded a smartphone app called “Smart Sheriff,” which is an app that blocks access to pornography and other offensive content. Of course, in its infinite wisdom, the Korea Communications Commission, which regulates the telecommunications industry, required telecom companies and parents to download and install “Smart Sheriff” onto any new Android smartphone when it is purchased by anyone aged 18 years or younger.

However, “Smart Sheriff,” which I will simply refer to as SS for brevity, does more than just block access to pornography or gambling sites. There are also hundreds of words that the app specifically gets alerted to such as crazy, garbage, thief, porn, suicide, pregnancy, dating, boyfriend, girlfriend, breakup, menstruation, adoption, divorce, rape, and homosexual love.

Yes, the law may have been passed with the best of intentions; namely, protecting children. It is also true that it doesn't take a literary genius to figure out that SS is rather Orwellian.

What concerns me more about SS than the immediate feeling of being spied on by Big Brother, however, is the way it could become the new normal of tomorrow.

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There was a time when marijuana was perfectly legal in Korea until it wasn't. Now, however, people think that marijuana is dangerous and should forever be designated as a banned substance. (Yes, yes, I know that marijuana is safer that tobacco and other legal drugs. I don't care to listen to the same conversation that I've had about marijuana since I was twenty. Roboseyo already said everything that I have to say about this subject long before I started blogging.)

There was a time when Koreans thought that employment was meant to last a lifetime. That also changed. Now, I doubt that there is anyone under thirty who is still deluded enough to believe that working at any chaebol company for a lifetime is actually realistic (or even desirable).

Going back to SS, I fear that young people will come to accept being lorded over by the government as being normal. It's true that there are ways around SS. Savvy internet users, and I am sure they are legion, could use VPNs or they could simply choose not to buy an Android smartphone (more good news for Apple!).

However, very few things in the world are as pervasive or all-encompassing as government laws.

What happens when an entire generation of teenagers come to accept that SS, and Big Brother in general, is perfectly normal? What happens if they truly believe that SS is there for their benefit – just like people believe that drug prohibition is for their benefit? Will they eventually lose their sense of rebellion or freedom? Will they become angry and lash out? Or worse, will they actually come to love Big Brother? Will they be socialized into accepting further encroachment on their liberties for a false sense of security?

I'm struggling to find an appropriate way to end this post. A pithy quote from James Madison or Voltaire? Too cliché. Simply ask “who is John Galt?” Too many people dislike Ayn Rand.

I don't know how to properly end this. All I feel is as though I were staring into the abyss.

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