[Opinion] Who Would Be `Safe Driver`?

A driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, and a policeman were arguing on the highway. The policeman said, "Sir, you are not wearing a seat belt which is necessary for your own safety." The driver responded loudly, "Sir, I take responsibility for my own safety. You take care of your own safety." This was a real scene broadcasted in TV a few days ago.

It is true that when an accident occurs, the driver who didn`t wear seat belt would die, not the policeman. Logically, the driver is right. Thus, there is not much to say when a person says that `I gave up my own safety.` However, such an indecent argument is not possible in the U.S. The reason to wear the seat belt is not for the safety of the driver, but because it is the law.

People may say emotionally, "What a stupid person. We don`t need such persons who risks one`s own life simply because wearing seat belt is inconvenient. Leave the person alone." However, the issue is not that simple. When a person dies due to the car accident, both material and non-material social cost is said to be approximately 300 million won in our country. People pay for the consequence of the accident that was caused by a driver who did not wear seat belt. While person`s life is valued, wearing seat belt is legally forced in the U.S. due to such economic loss.

Car accident is still a better case. When the highest manager mismanages the company and the company goes to bankrupt, the social loss can become hundred or thousand more times greater than a car accident. For example, the rest of people who have nothing to do with the company management suffer because they have to repay the debts of the bankrupt companies, which filed bankruptcy after the foreign exchange currency crisis. What did those companies do for us when they flourished?

150 trillion won worth of the public funds, which is equal to one and a half time of the national budget, was pumped to take care the `insolvent driving` of the managers. Nobody knows how much the public funds will increase. As the government does not know how to pay back the public funds, it began to say that it would pay back the astronomical cost by issuing the national bonds conversely. It feels unfair since some people have ended up responsible for others` debt. Moreover, we are dumbfounded at the fact that our next generation will also end up responsible for the debt since the debt has become so huge that the present generation cannot pay back. Of course, the next generation was born or will be born even without seeing the nonviable companies.

If the national debt increases like this, our offspring may need to live the economic level equal to the middle ground between our nation and Afghanistan. We feel surge of anger, thinking what kind of country this is, when it is reported that the public funds, which will inflict suffering to the people for generations, are misused due to the mismanagement.

If mismanagement inflicts such a huge burden, how about the losses accrued by the wrong administration of the nation? It is horrifying to know that it is possible to bring forth the bigger disaster incomparable with the loss rates that follow the individual car accident and the company`s bankruptcy. Witnessing the political figures who are currently fighting for the presidency in the political circle, which bears heavy responsibility, we feel uneasy about the future of the nation.

Can we leave safe driving to a person who has devoted to the struggle throughout one`s life without doing any other things? How dangerous would it be to entrust the national administration to a person who has repeatedly switched sides, blinded by one`s own interest? The unfortunate thing is that all these people are under an illusion that they have the best quality and possibility to become the best driver.

Referring to an unqualified candidate, people said that "if he fails in the election, his house will go bankrupt. If he wins, the nation will go bankrupt." While the voter has nothing to do with the bankruptcy of his family, the voter is responsible for the nation`s fate, if the nation goes bankrupt due to the wrong choice by the voter. This is why all the people should make mindful observation on who will be the safe driver.

Lee Kyoo-Min (Editorialist)

kyumlee@donga.com