If I remember, I think they said the words “serious consequences” but never really gave much details on that.
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If I remember, I think they said the words “serious consequences” but never really gave much details on that.
I think you're looking in the right direction but not focusing on what is most relevant. It's not the high-paying jobs that are threatened but the wealth of the "job creators" and that translates to the atmosphere of fear that is being created to mobilize and consolidate the population. The jobs themselves are not threatened in the economic sense if national policy doesn't prevent economic optimisation through mergers, buyouts etc. Some of those jobs would be lost but not all. However the owners of capital in this case are fighting for survival and they will whip their underlings into a bloody frenzy to prevent them from thinking about revolts, obstruction or backstabbing.
South Korea is not a country in the same sense that you may think of Japan for example. It is an industrial plantation run by oligarchical clans controlling large amounts of capital. Those clans are called "chaebols" which literally stands for "wealth clan".
Consider:
South Korea has GDP of $2735 billion and population of 51,8 million.
Samsung Group revenue is estimated at approximately 20% of South Korea's GDP of which half is Samsung Electronics with revenue of over $230bn - which is 8,6% of GDP. Hyundai Group revenue is estimated at approximately 8% of GDP. LG Group revenue is estimated at approx. 4,3% of GDP.
Combined these three are equal to a third of South Korea's GDP - close to a trillion USD in value.
These three largest chabols are controlled by three distinct clans:
- Lee Byung-chul controlling Samsung
- Chung Ju-yung controlling Hyundai
- Koo In-hwoi controlling LG
Compare:
In Germany which has a similar export-oriented industrial economy the largest company is the VW Group with just over 6% of Germany's GDP. The three largest automotive companies (VW, Daimler, BMW) account for 13,2% of GDP (compared to Samsung Electronics 8,6% and Samsung Group ~20%). Germany also has also a democratic political system with federal structure which adds further protections and the role of labour unions in policy-making on a national level as well as within companies is extensive and protected by law. South Korea is an American-style managed (pseudo)democracy with repression of proper organized labour.
In Japan which has a more similar culture to SK the largest company is Toyota with only 4,6% of GDP and fragmentation of industry is greater. Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda combined have only 9,3%. German automotive companies can also work with other European companies to support their strategy.
Competition is key because in competitive environments while one actor takes an adversarial stance the other can take a cooperative stance and gain a market advantage over its competitor. Samsung has no meaningful competition (LG is significantly smaller) and therefore it can set the tone for policy.
No other major industrial country has this level of centralization of national economy in so few private hands. Samsung alone has over twice the hypothesised ~10% critical mass for political action. The only other obvious example is... Taiwan and Foxconn's revenue being equal to 20-25% of Taiwan's GDP which should explain a lot.
South Korean chaebols understood politically as cliques run the political system of South Korea in all but name. Combined with lack of genuine society and genuine culture emerging from social activity South Korea is not very different from the totalitarian regime of the North. This is why South Korea is taught to hate China through manipulation of "culture" which is as fake and superficial as their flagship "cultural" products and as centralized as the economy.
Obviously the overall cultural mode of South Korean society which is not dissimilar to American cultural mode (except so much worse) plays an important role but it's largely a headless chicken without the oligarchy directing its emotion. After all when threatened by competition from China South Korea could turn against Japan and target those markets to secure its position. But that can't be done for political reasons so the only direction the oligarchy has left is China.
Trump also used to pull similar stuff ...
With regards to these two pictures you need context to draw proper conclusion - unless your goal is to spread misinformation and propaganda narratives.
Serbia's president was forced to come to Washington and was put in this position deliberately as a form of psychological pressure. He did not represent a faction that was allied with that of Trump's or Republicans in general.
Poland's president represents a faction that is allied with the Republicans and Trump and he forced himself to Washington through sheer force of servile enthusiasm and put himself in that position against the protocol and everything that the administration staff suggested. The face of Trump and Duda tells you what they thought of the event.
Also Duda (Poland's president) isn't really a proper president as much as a puppet of the party leader Kaczynski. He is not respected in Poland and doesn't have status that a head of the state should command, even in a parliamentary republic like Poland.
I find the enthusiastic servilism of Duda's and Poland's elites in general to be shameful and repulsive but we should confuse being given a lecture in a principal's office (Serbia) and an obnoxious stalker fangirl forcing herself to your party (Poland).
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total or per person?
It is those wealthy depositers, small and medium and even large companies that are taking out money from the banks. Average Joe doesn't have $250,000 sitting on a banking account and even they do they would deposit in different banks.
Total.