a society is certain to lose vitality and remain stagnant, if not go backward, if its members believe that they cannot move to a higher social status whatever efforts they may make. such pessimism is gripping korea, as evidenced by a survey recently conducted by statistics korea.

according to the 2011 social survey of 17,000 households throughout the nation, almost half the korean people believe they belong to the working class and six in 10 believe they cannot improve their social and economic status no matter how hard they may try.