KWillets

Dissecting the Korea-Obama Trade Agreement

The idea that Asian people are stealing jobs from American auto workers is one of the founding myths of the Democratic Party, one which probably goes back to the time of Henry Ford or the invention of the wheel.

For reference, here's a table of Democratic presidential candidates and their stealing-jobs countries of choice:

Carter	Japan
Mondale	Taiwan, Singapore
Dukakis	Japan, Tanks
Clinton	Japan
Gore
Kerry
Obama	Korea

Back during the election, I was surprised by how easily Obama trashed the KORUS FTA, and the dodgy accounting in his trade figures that went unchallenged by the press. Somehow he forgot to mention that GM-Daewoo has 13% of the market in Korea, and that Korean brands manufacture a significant number of the cars that they sell in the US, in the US. While these figures certainly cast doubt on Obama's fact-checking, it's still surprising that Korea buys fewer Escalades than the average public housing project. How did this come about?

A little more research revealed the utterings of Sander Levin, a congressman whose job it is apparently to sell cars. He was probably the author of Obama's remarks on "hidden trade barriers", and he is the type of congressman who sees no contradiction between voting against CAFE (fuel economy) standards and for CO2 reductions and the Kyoto treaty. He is from Michigan.

Unlike Obama he also sees no need to disguise his objections to similar legislation in foreign countries, so with his help I was able to dig out the gist of the Korea-Obama Trade Act. The "hidden trade barriers" in Levin's words are taxes based on engine displacement, which the Koreans enacted in order to avoid going broke importing oil, and another tax to fund public transportation. Similar taxes are levied in Europe and Japan.

So how discriminatory are these taxes? With a little more digging I found this little gem:

The Korean government levies such high tax rates because it wants to encourage energy conservation in addition to curbing spending on luxury goods. Accordingly, bigger cars which consume larger amounts of fuel and which have higher sticker prices are subject to higher tax rates. As heavy as these taxes may be, however, they and imported foreign cars on equal terms. Outside of import tariffs, it therefore cannot be argued that foreign cars are treated unfairly in the domestic market.

On the subway bond tax, another "hidden in plain sight" tax/trade barrier, here's the best description I could find:

Governments have also developed vehicle taxation programs to support government programs to ease environmental pollution. For example, Korea applies either a subway bond, or a rural development bond to vehicle sales (depending on location of vehicle sale). The subway bond program taxes vehicle sales in order to help fund subway development. One goal of this program would be to help ease traffic congestion and the corresponding vehicle emissions.

Sounds downright evil, this lowering of emissions and funding of public transportation. So how did a fairly innocuous, if not downright environmentally appealing tax scheme turn out to be Obama enemy number one? That's one answer we'll probably never hear.

And The Winner for Most Antidemocratic Agency of a Democratic Government is...

The Korean Unification Ministry. For their tireless efforts to curb free speech, return escaped North Koreans, subsidize oppression, and overstep the bounds of their largely pointless authority, the Unification Ministry has earned the Franz Kafka Award for Distinguished Self-Contradiction.

The latest episode is the persecution of North Korean free speech activists. According to this ministry, the fact the North is threatened by even the most basic criticism is in no way an obstacle to unification, but it is a perfectly justifiable reason to harass the critics.

Make That 31 Ways

 

Over on boingboing gadgets they've posted 30 ways to die of electrocution, and it reminded me I've been wanting to post this Korean fishing safety sign.  Remember, electrocuting yourself while fishing will upset not just you and your companion, but the fish as well. 

This sign was on power poles along this country road in Yongcheon. 

Farther up the road I ran across this gravesite near the top of the ridge. 

(Update) This just in:  KWillets FTW.

Sometime Nurses say it best

A friend of ours is a nurse.  She came to the city via a recruiting agency, works in St. Mary's and CPMC, and has the societal perspective that can only be gained in a takes-all-comers emergency room.  She gets the homeless drunks from Golden Gate Park, the bullet-riddled crack dealers from the Housing Authority, and the usual assortment of mentally ill, heart-attacks, car crashes, and other misfortunes.  In a few short years, she has transformed from a fresh-off-the-boat newcomer to a seasoned city nurse.

What strikes me is that, although she has to wear a special mask to undress the scabies-encrusted homeless at St. Mary's, she much prefers that to dealing with the rich patients at CPMC.  She has no political grudge against them, and indeed she lives quite close to, if not in, Pacific Heights, yet she is paradoxically repelled by the attitude that her very own neighbors put forth.

My wife told me this story, and I immediately agreed.  Somehow, despite their best efforts, their millions of dollars raised for the Democrats, and their ethnically diverse $20,000-per-year pre-schools, the rich of San Francisco do not inspire much if any affection among the public. 

Much of this problem may stem from the road-to-Hell effect, where good intentions, expressed with money, cause more problems than they solve.  For instance, there are no housing projects in Pacific Heights, but I'm sure may Democratic donors and politicians there would extoll the virtues of helping the poor and wretched grow up that way in HUD housing, as long as it's someone else's problem to deal with the non-monetary issues.

Now, it's unfair to blame rich people for faults of others.  Indeed, well-educated and economically self-sufficient people commit few crimes, don't disturb their neighbors, and generally behave in ways that free up police and tax money for use in more distressed areas.  But this freedom from problems, if you will, does not lead to an ability to solve the problems that do occur.

First Post -- 신성일의 한옥집

Over the summer, we spent a few days in my father-in-law's newly built Hanok in Yongchon, outside of Taegu.  It was built over the winter, and in this photo the pine tree and the humble boulder marking the house  had just been installed. 

The backstory is that he first built this small pavilion nearby, and somehow the idea of building a house just up the valley came to mind.

 The site overlooks a farm belonging to the family of a woman who works for him, and a small valley with several other farms nearby.

At the time the house was still in need of sanding and oiling to coat the wood surfaces; pencil marks and ink snaplines were still visible.  Rock salt was sprinkled around the footings to preserve the wood.

 

The framing was particularly interesting to look at, and we spent several minutes at a time gazing up at the details of each joint.  This is the inside detail of a roof corner, where the rafters swing through a ninety-degree angle to form a flared corner and are mitered together as they reach the top.  

The vertical posts bear the weight of the tile the roof all the way down onto stone footings, and are the first framing members put in place.

   

The roof trusses are the second step, and the roof is mostly done before floors and walls appear.  The grid pattern of the support posts determines the placement of walls, doors and windows.

We have some photos of the construction process which show the construction process more clearly, and I'll try to scan and post them later.  

I have yet to determine if this member is structural or not.