"Privilege and Anxiety" by Hagen Koo (Review)
South Korea’s rapid industrialisation spawned inclusive prosperity and a booming middle-class. From the 1990s, the economy has bifurcated. The top 20% have enjoyed a massive growth spurt in wages and wealth. Meanwhile, growing numbers are employed in smaller firms and precarious work, paying far less. Korea’s economic elite now seek to distinguish themselves through conspicuous consumption - broadcast on television shows, adverts and social media. Seeing this spending and struggling to keep up, everyone else feels like they’re falling behind. “Privilege and anxiety” thus represent two sides of 21st century socio-economic development.
That’s my crude summary of “Privilege and Anxiety”, by Hagen Koo. If you’ve heard me praise him before, that’s because I adore his earlier book on “Korean workers: the culture and politics of class formation” (which is like E.P Thompson’s History of the English Working Class, only much better).
Spoilers: this book is great! Koo persuasively argues that growing inequality and media coverage of elite spending have encouraged conspicuous consumption, as well as heightened investment in cosmetics, plastic surgery and education.
However, I’m not entirely convinced. South Korea now has the same income inequality as the U.K, but far more conspicuous consumption. It is the world leader for spending on luxury goods, male cosmetics, plastic surgery and private education. Culture also matters. Koreans care immensely about wider social approval, as I’ve learnt through my own research in Seoul. A culture of peer comparison spurs status competition and class anxieties.
