There’s two issues. The one is that prosperity is already very ambiguous, and in the context of nations we usually default to easily measurable things like GDP. This doesn’t define human well-being which is actually not so easy to measure. Look at the US as the richest nation on earth for a stark example. The question was asked in this way and without this clarification for a reason.
But the bigger issue is that it’s just the wrong question to ask. Any definition of prosperity for one massive people can be built upon the cruel subjugation and exploitation of others. And that’s exactly what happened and continues to happen under the “former” global colonial powers, as well as aligned governments (which includes a lot of puppets). Hence US foreign policy. Celebrating this as a victory of capitalism is either clueless or outright malicious.
If you don’t feel like stating your opinion on which country is better off and why, then you could just say that outright or say nothing. You really don’t have to go to all of this trouble to pontificate about how it is unreasonable to even consider the matter. 😜
The question itself was a cheap gotcha. Shockingly, it’s not as simple as that as I’ve been pointing out. Which you’d acknowledge if you were arguing in good faith.
It’s unfortunate that any attempt to insert some nuance automatically makes me the enemy in your simplistic position on the matter. And now ego prevents you from backing off of this kind of thinking by any means, no matter what toxic and regressive conclusions it takes you to.
I think that’s a fairly cynical take of the question that was asked. I’m not sure which peoples are being subjugated and exploited in South Korea. And in the context of North Korea, I’m not sure what your exact point is with regards to oppression, as it seems that issue is much more severe there.
The question remains: what should the question have been then? Population happiness then? Life expectancy? How would you measure which country is doing better, and in which comparison does NK come out on top over SK?
I didn’t say the people of South Korea are being subjugated. Not sure how I could have made clearer that these are two separate issues.
You also won’t find me defending NK. Not everything should devolve into tribalism and dunking on whatever we perceive as the other team. Which is exactly what I’m criticizing about this question and the way it was asked.
I didn’t say the people of South Korea are being subjugated.
Quote the comment that started all of this:
Is anyone really surprised one of the biggest companies in occupied korea would do this??
I acknowledge that this is not your comment, but you stepped in and answered a question directed at this person, so you should not act so surprised that you have become associated with their position, especially since you continue to work really hard to do everything except actually state your own opinion, except insofar that “everything is too complicated for anyone to have an opinion” counts as an opinion.
Generally when one refers to a country as being “occupied”, the implication is that the people there are poor off as a result, especially relative to a neighboring country whose land is presumably being considered occupied, which in this case is implicitly North Korea due to the history of how the two countries split. It is therefore not in bad faith to directly ask whether the people there are better or worse off as a result.
You also seem to be hyper-fixated on one possible meaning of prosperous, which is “wealth and GDP”, when there are lots of other means related to flourishing in general. The original commenter was perfectly free to provide an answer along the lines of, “North Korea is the more prosperous country because X.” where X is a list of ways in which the people there are flourishing, and this would have been a valid answer (if not necessarily a correct one).
Alternatively, if they think that South Korea is better off but this does not matter because it is still less ethical than North Korea, then they could have taken the opportunity to be up front about that.
So in short, this question could have been used in all sorts of ways to provide an answer that clarified the commenter’s position. It is a shame that we never heard from them exactly what their thoughts were.
There’s two issues. The one is that prosperity is already very ambiguous, and in the context of nations we usually default to easily measurable things like GDP. This doesn’t define human well-being which is actually not so easy to measure. Look at the US as the richest nation on earth for a stark example. The question was asked in this way and without this clarification for a reason.
But the bigger issue is that it’s just the wrong question to ask. Any definition of prosperity for one massive people can be built upon the cruel subjugation and exploitation of others. And that’s exactly what happened and continues to happen under the “former” global colonial powers, as well as aligned governments (which includes a lot of puppets). Hence US foreign policy. Celebrating this as a victory of capitalism is either clueless or outright malicious.
If you don’t feel like stating your opinion on which country is better off and why, then you could just say that outright or say nothing. You really don’t have to go to all of this trouble to pontificate about how it is unreasonable to even consider the matter. 😜
So prosperity for one people is worth any price to you?
I will take from your attempt to throw a “Gotchya!” at me that you acknowledge that you are unwilling to state your own opinion on the matter.
The question itself was a cheap gotcha. Shockingly, it’s not as simple as that as I’ve been pointing out. Which you’d acknowledge if you were arguing in good faith.
It’s unfortunate that any attempt to insert some nuance automatically makes me the enemy in your simplistic position on the matter. And now ego prevents you from backing off of this kind of thinking by any means, no matter what toxic and regressive conclusions it takes you to.
If it makes you feel better, you are emphatically not my enemy. 😀
I think that’s a fairly cynical take of the question that was asked. I’m not sure which peoples are being subjugated and exploited in South Korea. And in the context of North Korea, I’m not sure what your exact point is with regards to oppression, as it seems that issue is much more severe there.
The question remains: what should the question have been then? Population happiness then? Life expectancy? How would you measure which country is doing better, and in which comparison does NK come out on top over SK?
I didn’t say the people of South Korea are being subjugated. Not sure how I could have made clearer that these are two separate issues.
You also won’t find me defending NK. Not everything should devolve into tribalism and dunking on whatever we perceive as the other team. Which is exactly what I’m criticizing about this question and the way it was asked.
Quote the comment that started all of this:
I acknowledge that this is not your comment, but you stepped in and answered a question directed at this person, so you should not act so surprised that you have become associated with their position, especially since you continue to work really hard to do everything except actually state your own opinion, except insofar that “everything is too complicated for anyone to have an opinion” counts as an opinion.
Yeah it was asked in bad faith and framed in a manipulative way.
That’s not a good thing and should be called out, no matter if you disagree with the person it was directed at. It’s called integrity.
Generally when one refers to a country as being “occupied”, the implication is that the people there are poor off as a result, especially relative to a neighboring country whose land is presumably being considered occupied, which in this case is implicitly North Korea due to the history of how the two countries split. It is therefore not in bad faith to directly ask whether the people there are better or worse off as a result.
You also seem to be hyper-fixated on one possible meaning of prosperous, which is “wealth and GDP”, when there are lots of other means related to flourishing in general. The original commenter was perfectly free to provide an answer along the lines of, “North Korea is the more prosperous country because X.” where X is a list of ways in which the people there are flourishing, and this would have been a valid answer (if not necessarily a correct one).
Alternatively, if they think that South Korea is better off but this does not matter because it is still less ethical than North Korea, then they could have taken the opportunity to be up front about that.
So in short, this question could have been used in all sorts of ways to provide an answer that clarified the commenter’s position. It is a shame that we never heard from them exactly what their thoughts were.