1970년대 정부의 반(反)소비 정책과 소비자 행동에 대한 연구

Abstract

The Korean government repressed consumption through various ways to invest capital to manufacturing sector in the 1970s. Firstly, it used various kinds of economic policies like taxation and financial system. It has enforced the value-added tax and the special excise tax system in 1977. The latter has been levied on a lot of luxuries to mitigate regressive character of the former. Psychological pressure or uncertainty from the new consumption tax greatly influenced the consumption environment. An example of conflict was the collective closing down of about seven hundred shops as form of resistance to the tax system in Pyounghwa Market in October 1977, which was one of the biggest traditional markets in Korea. The consumer price index (CPI) also rose gradually after the imposition of the value added tax. While the CPI increased at moderate rate in the third quarter of 1977 when the tax was introduced due to close regulation of the government, it increased rapidly after that. Secondly, the government hardly permitted loans to households and strongly induced long term savings with the incentive of higher interest rates. In fact, most households only had savings but had no right to get a loan at all in the 1970s. Therefore, finance for consumption was unthinkable in the 1970s. Thirdly, the Korean government imposed, sometimes, even specific measure to repress consumption. One of the representative ones was the prohibition of the gift-voucher which was enforced in December 1975. It had an especially severe impact on department stores because about 35 per cent of their sales was generated through gift-voucher. The Korean government used various social policies to repress consumption as well. The Saemaul movement was one of the most representative campaigns to regulate the social atmosphere in the 1970s. While in the very beginning it was a campaign to develop rural districts, gradually it changed into a campaign for spiritual reform as it expanded to various types of organisations in Korean society, such as companies and urban districts. The establishment of the ‘Day of Savings’ was also deeply related to the social policy which encouraged frugality and savings. The Day of Savings was established in 1964 by presidential decree with the goal of inculcating the importance of saving upon the Korean people and then was commemorated by the government since 1973. The Day of the Savings was also the day when a national hero or heroine was announced as a ‘King/Queen of Savings of the Year’. Whenever it was announced, newspapers usually carried a special interview with the national hero or heroine. Most of the narratives were preter-human. The Korean government paid particular attention to education of children in school about frugality because this could then be expanded to social education through their family. Education supervisory institutes informed each school of the educational goals of diligence and frugality, and most primary and secondary schools had no alternative but to follow the direction of these institutes, which had the power to appoint and dismiss their staffs. In addition to such varied policies for repression of consumption, the government imposed serious penalties against over-consumption and the consumption of luxury goods, as a means of strengthening its policy. The Korean government often carried out tax investigations on companies or people, and the results were announced in newspapers and broadcast systems during the 1970s and 1980s. In this social atmosphere, Korean consumption behavior was limited by social pressure at both the conscious and unconscious level. The Korean government went further and repressed the retail industry to control consumption. One of the most important characteristics of the retail policies of the 1970s was that it focused mainly on price stability, instead of supporting development of the industry. The retail industry was completely excluded from support by the industrial policy with taxation and finance while manufacturing sector was boosted up by tax exemption and specially lower interest rates. Under this condition, the retail industry could not develop in accordance with economic growth in the 1970s. This implied that Korean consumers were deprived of their various opportunities for consumption with which the retail sector, as a place of consumption, could provide at that time. As result of these policies, Korean consumers were more frugal in the 1970s than in other periods in periodic comparison. In international comparison, they were much more frugal than the consumers in Latin American developing countries with the same level of income. This article is the first of its kind which mainly focuses on the relationship between developmental policy and consumption repression even though some scholars have shown interest in the regulation of the consumer goods industry as a way of support for the manufacturing sector. This may be closely related to the fact that the Korean economy is a successful example of export-led growth. Because of this, most research relating to the Korean economy in the 1970s, has focused on industrial policy to invest in manufacturing sector. Therefore, it will fill the gap in the Korean economic history. It would also become a basis of research to examine consumers in the 1980s who have become more important in terms of both social and of economic status. In general it is said that Korean consumers have been aggressive and enthusiastic since the late 1980s. Such characteristics of consumers may be related to condition of consumption in the 1970s as well as in the 1980s because all consumers are historical consumers. In other words, the characteristics of the 1980s should be examined through those of the 1970s. Consumption repression by the government entailed similar pattern of consumption regardless of income level or location. Most Korean consumers consumed similar goods in similar traditional market without discrimination. This phenomenon could have affected social dynamics, which will need further research.