korea also ranks low in middle-class population among oecd nations. it ranks 18th out of the 21 member countries surveyed.

even the current middle class are unhappy as eight out of 10 say that they are unstable financially, far above the asian average of 55 percent.

the two economic crises — the financial crisis in 1997 and the credit card crisis in 2002 — thinned the middle class base. many of the eight million middle-class people are likely to fall to the poor class as these baby-boomers, born from 1955 to 1963, have begun to retire. many unemployed people in their 20s and 30s have yet to dream of becoming middle class.