[shiroiushi]

Exactly. Uber was shady, but that kind of shadiness and willingness to ignore laws is necessary to bring positive change in a highly corrupt society. It's a lot like Batman: when the police are completely ineffectual or corrupt and working for organized crime, you need a vigilante who ignores the laws that just protect the criminals.

However, in better-run and not-so-corrupt societies like Korea, it's not necessary and probably downright harmful.

[burutthrow1234]

> However, in better-run and not-so-corrupt societies like Korea, it's not necessary and probably downright harmful.

South Korea was under varying levels of dictatorship from the Korean War until the Sixth Republic in 1987. Roh Tae-woo, the first president after authoritarian rule, was imprisoned for corruption. Roh Moo-hyun, the President from 2003-2008 was investigated for corruption and died by suicide rather than face charges. Lee Myung-bak, his successor, was imprisoned for corruption. Park Geun-hye, his successor, was imprisoned for corruption.

I don't know that South Korea is the poster child for a "better-run and not not-so-corrupt" society.

[shiroiushi]

>I don't know that South Korea is the poster child for a "better-run and not not-so-corrupt" society.

It's not a poster child, but the US sets such a low bar that SK looks great by comparison.

Note also that the US isn't so visibly corrupt at the federal level; it's at the local levels where it's really no better than the typical poster children for corrupt countries. Taxis are a completely local (municipal) issue.

[setopt]

Credit where credit is due: Sounds like no-one really gets away with corruption in Korea. The same can’t be said for more corrupt places.

[teractiveodular]

Yeah, I wouldn't go quite that far. Here's Samsung's heir, convicted in court of bribery, getting a special presidential pardon because, and I quote, he's "needed back at the helm to spearhead economic recovery post-pandemic".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62501514

[folkrav]

Not sure I'd call Korea and its countless cases of political corruption with Chaebol more and more appearing to be basically running the show "not-so-corrupt".

[shiroiushi]

Compared to the US, with countless cases of political corruption with Boeing and Microsoft basically running the show, I would.

[folkrav]

I genuinely don't understand why the concept of the two countries' politics being corrupted is such a wild idea.