In response to KERI’s suggestion that Korea follow Donald Trump’s administration and lower the tax rate on business income held overseas, it is wrong to assume that multinational companies would reinvest in Korea, ordinary citizens are tired of governments favoring big business, and Donald Trump is not someone any reasonable leader should follow.

With less than six months in office, Trump is the most volatile and polarizing president in American history, and -- as a president and a human being -- he carries very little respect among world leaders. His approval rating is only 34 percent, the lowest of any American president during the same time period. Among world leaders, only Britain’s embattled Theresa May is lower.

Why would the popularly elected, and highly respected Moon Jae-in do anything just because Donald Trump has an untested, unapproved, ill-thought out, poorly articulated plan to do so?

To the contrary, he and all leaders should avoid using Trump as a model. American economists say that the main lesson about Trump’s administration (rooted in the premise that Trump is a billionaire businessman who can do a better job of running the country than a politician) is that business and economics are very different disciplines, and that running a business and running a country are not the same. There are “a bunch of skills and modes of thought you learn in business that could easily make you really bad at governing,” they say. (Remember also that Trump made millions by not paying contract workers and filing for bankruptcy four times.)

Suggesting that Moon should follow Trump is absurd. Whereas Trump is rash and has ideas that overwhelmingly support big businesses while cruelly disregarding nature, the climate and the average citizen; Moon has a reputation for being more measured, humanitarian and inclusive.

Changing the tax code would further widen the economic gap, which according to Business Insider, economic inequality is one of the biggest divides in America. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center, that was reported on by Business Insider, showed that 80 percent of Americans think corporations do not pay their fair share of federal taxes. And 78 percent feel that wealthy people don’t pay their fair share. With this data, there is no reason to think there would be mass support for giving additional tax breaks to multinational corporations. Therefore, by doing so, Trump is sending a clear message that he doesn’t care. Moon, however, has proposed provocative initiatives that imply he genuinely cares about South Korea and the success of all of its citizens.

Experts insist that the majority of offshore money belongs to a small number of businesses who are unlikely to reinvest in their home economy in any substantial form, such as hiring more employees, education and training, or building new factories. Instead, market economists say repatriated funds are “more likely to be returned to shareholders.”

Lastly, it takes taxpayer money to employ high-level officials and send them abroad to negotiate favorable trade deals for Korean-based multinationals. The only reason corporations are able to enjoy their large profits are because of the diplomatic efforts of tax-paid agents. It would be gluttony for companies to simply reap the rewards of Korea’s continuing diplomacy, without paying taxes for it.


From Georgia Scott

Georgia Scott is communications manager of the Korea Taxpayers’ Association. She can be reached at georgiaworldwide@gmail.com. -- Ed.