Wealthy South Koreans Love Spending for School
Rich South Koreans don’t generally think of themselves as rich, and they don’t like to talk about the fact that they have money. There is a cultural taboo against doing so, you see, and it is considered undignified. Fair enough, since in most western cultures folks don’t like to talk about how poor they are. Still, at the link you’ll read some interesting statistics compiled about wealthy South Koreans surveyed by the research division of KB Financial, the country’s second-largest financial holdings group. What really jumps out from the survey results is that wealthy Koreans (those with $950,000 or more in assets) place the highest value in terms of spending upon education. By South Korean standards, a wealthy household earns an income of just over $200 thousand per year. The KB survey found that nearly a quarter of that income is spent on schools, exam-preparation “cram” schools, and private tutoring for the kids in wealthy households. South Korea has always been justifiably regarded as a brainy country; but it appears that the wealthiest echelon of Korean citizens is doing its best to ensure the country’s smart reputation endures. (Wall Street Journal Korea Realtime –South Korean School Spending)