[Editorial] Rising Prices for New Year’s Day, Weary Folks
New Year’s Day, the biggest festival in the nation, is just around the corner. The Bank of Korea has released four trillion won for the holiday, although the market for the festival is brisk and lives of the common people are still tough. The government asserts with evidence of different statistics that such circumstances are not due to the troubled economy, but to psychological influence over the people. Nevertheless, it can be figured from the daily lives of the people that celebrating New Year’s, which is close at hand, is not a pushover.
The article reported in our newspaper on February 14, ‘Housewife with 40 Years of Experience Shopping for New Year’s Day at Conventional Markets’ reflects how commoners feel about the market for New Year’s Day. To put it simply, prices that have gone extremely high strike housewives with shock and a sigh. For instance, the price of a pear that is used for the ancestor's memorial service is around 3,000 won. This is double the price at the time of last year’s Chuseok. The price of seafood has suddenly risen half a month ago as well as the price of fruit.
It is pitiful to see housewives with distressed facial expressions after asking the price of items, searching around the market for cheaper ones. The rising price of memorial service supplies, such as fruit, seafood and fresh meat, also applies to wholesale markets, not only to conventional markets. It is normal that the price of certain items rises to some extent every year at the time close to festivals. However, it is over the limit this year.
The Korea Price Corporation anticipated 129,700 won as expenses for ancestor memorial ceremonies, which is actually an unreasonable amount for common folks and above the market price. Although the government has apparently conducted early shipments of agriculture cooperative materials and supplied high-demand goods at the cheapest price possible, it was beyond its capacity to settle the price for New Year’s Day. The 3.8% rise in the cost of living index in January has affected prices for the New Year.
Unlike the inactive celebration of the New Year among commoners, the political situation is in a tense situation with the resumption of support for North Korea, reorganization of political circles and competition over sovereignty followed by the North Korean nuclear program settlement. However, the livelihood of the people should not be neglected as it is the very first and most important matter of responsibility. It is the duty of politicians who are returning home for New Year’s Day to first take application for weary lives of the people into the national administration.
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 / 입력시간: 2007. 02.16. 08:32
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