Government incentive systems for military service veterans

Government in South Korea should add extra points system for those who served the military service'

There is a compulsion for men to work in the army in South Korea. The veterans have been provided an extra point system that would qualify them for civilian jobs after they are cashiered. This system provides a distinct advantage for the men who are applying for work in the civilian sector and is also beneficial for them. This model is followed for men in the same footing as in the U.S. While in the U.S. The issues addressed are not only employment but also other facilities like health and social security. As far as South Korea, is concerned it is a growing economy with competition in the civil jobs both from the civilian population and also from the immigrants who come in search of work. Moreover the society has changed with feminine activism and more women entering the work market. The discharged soldier is at a disadvantage unless he is given some weight because of adaptation issues. These issues are somewhat addressed by the extra point system. Thus taking away the system will create hardship for those who are compulsorily commissioned and would create a situation where they are likely to fail in civil life with attendant consequences. This paper thus argues that the government in South Korea should add extra points system for those who served the military service.

Thesis Statement:

The government of South Korea has proposed withdrawing the extra points system and it is argued that the "Government in South Korea should add extra points system for those who served the military service."

Discussion

There are many reasons that point to the fact that the soldier who leaves the army finds it difficult to get a job or exist in the civil society. In South Korea it is mandatory for the youth to enter military service for at least 2 years. On the other hand while it is compulsory for men to enter military service, it is not mandatory for women, and other excepted kinds like migrant workers and some skilled personnel and also those who may be exempted by law. Thus men are at a great disadvantage in finding jobs, getting trained and finding experience as compared to women and other workers who may become skilled in the two years and offer severe competition.

In Korea, women and other people who do not need to serve the military service have lots of chance to apply for job and improve their personal skills like getting certification on any computer skills but the men who served the military service cannot prepare anything about their future job for 2 years.

The Human Rights Commission has pointed out that the military service is mandatory for males and the government imprisons persons who raise a conscientious objection to military service. The law for conscientious objectors to military service are not accommodated to alternative civilian service. About eight hundred men are imprisoned in South Korea. Most of them are Jehovah's Witnesses; and those with religious beliefs and other similar reasons for refusing to carry out military service. Further the constitutional court in hearing arguments on whether criminal punishment for conscientious objectors to military service is a violation of rights, the court ruled in 2011, that the right to conscientious objection to military service is not protected in the Constitution. (Amnesty Report, 2012)

Under such circumstances it is evident that every eligible male has to do compulsory military service. This means that male members of the society are trained, and kept in barracks and other military installations for over a number of years during mostly their youth. It is improbable that all the youth acquire skills that would be in demand in the civilian life, and the case of veterans who put in larger number of years in the service would alienate them from the fast changing consumer oriented business world and they would be unfit for jobs with various requirements unless they have time to learn and orient themselves to the civilian climate. Only if the government ensures that alternative service is of a genuinely civilian character with the opportunity to qualify while in service is provided to military personnel the question of accommodating cashiered personnel in business and civilian ventures will persist and cause strife.

One of the working solutions that have been explored in many western nations and in the U.S. are providing special concessions in education, employment and other competitive avenues for ex-service personnel. This means creating a system where service in the military counts for something. That is exactly what the credit point system is now doing to the personnel and discontinuing it will leave the discharged soldier high and dry and will remove any opportunity at competing with the general public for jobs and education. Now, South Korean government is going to abolish the system. There are benefits in the system especially considering the political, social and employment status of the country and hence the hypothesis that "the government should not abolish the system for the men who served the military service." It would be very unjust and will be utter discrimination of the men in service over other civilian competitors.

Comparing the system between Korea and other countries like the United States, it is evident that the United States and Australia have come to terms with the problem of joblessness of soldiers who have quit service. There have been a lot of laws passed and concessions given to accommodate those veterans who have turned to civilian life after active duty. In the United States for example in a research conducted for the Rand Corporation Santa Monica, the researchers Asch & Warner (1994), in their paper 'Policy Analysis of Alternative Military Retirement Systems' suggest that for the year 1990, the government spent over forty five billion dollars as military compensation and this has caused debate in the policy of the retirement system, and various appointed commissions have advanced proposals for the military's compensation system. "To address questions about the appropriateness of the size and structure of the military system, a theory or model is needed that recognizes the military's manpower goals, incorporates the essential features of the military organization, and predicts the behavioural responses of personnel to alternative compensation and personnel policies." (Asch; Warner, 1994)

Thus was born various schemes that accommodated social security, disability schemes, and the extra point scheme in education and job selection and many federal laws and policies now relate to the employment of people with disabilities. And those disabled in action are now protected by law, especially the Americans with Disabilities Act, and has many other social welfare policies and the method of absorbing the veteran in civil businesses and work after the detachment from the labour force. It is argued by Waterstone, professor at Loyola Law School Los Angeles that "the federal laws and programs for veterans with disabilities demonstrate that a more coherent policy is possible. Federal employment policy for veterans with disabilities is more integrated and encourages workforce participation through both antidiscrimination law and social welfare policies." (Waterstone, 2009)

The U.S. experience begins with a large number of soldiers returning from the wars, both with and without injuries and disabilities and the inability to accommodate or create a proper system to assure them employment opportunities with the economy having a rising unemployment rates, has made the government create special laws and consideration to accommodate the veterans in civil life. This is a study thus in the need for systems to accommodate those cashiered from service and the methods legally taken to accommodate them by giving special concessions. One of such is the points for service system which gives a better advantage to the soldier over the competition in the job market. (Evan, 2009)

However it is to be pointed out that increasing military expenditure has made the U.S. government step back from the merit points from 2010. The U.S. Social Security Administration has been ever since 1957, providing cover to the military service earnings for active duty and converting the Social Security taxes on those earnings. Further the military service from 1957 through 2001 can be credited for higher Social Security benefit. However after the year 2001, there are no special extra earnings credits for military service. In the U.S. The 2002, Public Law 107-117 and the Defence Appropriations Act, stopped the special extra earnings that have been credited to military service personnel. Thus in future in the U.S. extra earnings credits will not be counted. (U.S. Social Security Administration, 2012)

Taking a look at the Australian system, it can be noted that Australia's National Service lotteries and the effect of army service on employment outcomes was researched by Siminski (2012) a social researcher. In his paper using various "Population data from military personnel records, tax returns, veterans' compensation records and the census" the researcher was able to arrive at the fact that in the case of Australia the employment potential of veterans after discharge was a negative that is 12 percentage points and it was overall, 37 percentage for those who served in Vietnam and zero for those who serve only within Australia. (Siminski, 2012)

In the 1990s the veterans' Disability Pension scheme has had some effects. These results stated by the researcher Siminski (2012) are in disproportion to the situation in USA, of the same periods and it was thus concluded that there was employment disincentives inherent in Australia's veterans' compensation system. Though the nations are supposedly blaming the points system for their failure to accommodate ex-servicemen, the system does not show the difference between these countries and South Korea. The reason is that in these countries the veterans have already returned from a war and have alternate compensation media. However the serving personal are voluntary. There is no compulsion for anyone to serve the army except in a war. Therefore the compensation system may be shown as wasteful in a capitalist society that is not at war. (Siminski, 2012)

The law of compensation system -- extra points system, in the United States was to a great extent helpful in accommodating veteran's right from the Vietnam War to the Middle East crisis. In these cases the conscripts benefited after they were released from the army. Most conscripts are already proficient on some trade or another and therefore they have a future in competition. The situation in South Korea is totally different and if the Government of Korea is abolishing the system it is an ill considered move to manage the system. It can be proved by exploring the Korean situation that the point system is important to the men. The point system is necessary to ensure them a job, and the extra points will create equality with those who have not served but have acquired skills and compete. The point systems would also compensate for the two years compulsorily spent in the army.

The point that is moot is not whether the compulsory military service for men is discriminatory or not. In fact for South Korea the military service for men has been a blessing. It has brought together cohesion and a cultural ethos and unity in the country. The problem is thus not with the military although it was shown earlier that the human right activists do not view the compulsory enlistment in a favourable light, in this paper for the purposes of the hypothesis this fact is overlooked. It is also because it has been shown by researchers that the compulsory military work was good for the country. For example Kwona (2000), Professor at Korea Institute at Harvard University, USA published a tract in the 'International Feminist Journal of Politics' which reveals a detailed study of the South Korean system. Kwona (2000) claims that "military conscription in South Korea has attracted surprisingly little social research." "Mainly, such research has been left to military institutions. Also, few South Korean feminist analysts, until recently, have tried to fill this notable gap in political analysis." (Kwona, 2000)

Further the researcher shows that the workings of male compulsory military service must be looked into. The argument is that by the gendering of conscription, and the persistence of a culture of militarism the new democratic movement will still be from the 'authentic' South Korean in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The compulsory male military service has had its many utilities and it was crucial in "constructing citizenship, nationhood, masculinity, femininity, motherhood and fatherhood and in creating the essential 'glue' that binds each of these six potent ideas to the concept of the nation-state in contemporary South Korea." (Kwona, 2000)

Thus the merits of the veterans extra point and its abolition is not justified to continue a system that proves beneficial to the state. It is argued that in order to derive benefits from the compulsory military service imposed by South Korea, the soldier must be equipped to meet the challenges of civil life when he returns to it. If the fate of the soldier after return is despair, then the system of the compulsory service itself will be challenged, resented and probably be the cause of strife and civil or military unrest in future. Is the extra point system beneficial? Definitely in the present set up it is. In the debates on the abolition of the veteran's extra point system the major thrust is to argue that as long as the compulsory military service system continues to operate it is difficult to avoid the extra point because of discrimination it causes. (Joo-hyun, 2002)

It is also difficult to remove the distinction between public/private sectors and the natural gender difference, the conscription causes and the male-centeredness of the state is also touted as an issue. In contrast it is argued by the social researcher Joo-hyun (2002) that if there is an alternative, it must take into account the gender politics, and must also "utilize actively the idea of human rights as well as the idea of citizenship to realize the gender equal state." Therefore the male conscription as long as is prevalent is going to be a social problem and gender-based differences are going to create a lacunae for which the point system has to be retained. There is also the economic angle. It has to be understood that there is a relationship between gender, wage inequality, and export-led growth in South Korea.

Studying the Korean economy Seguinoa (1997) argued that the gender wage gap in Korea's manufacturing sector and the women's segregation in the country's major export industries have not driven up women's wages relative to those of men. Seguinoa (1997) argues that though the wages increase they are not substantial for women. That was in 1977 and the times have changed to day. It was observed in 1977 that "the interaction of state and firm-level hiring, training, and promotion practices that structure women's and men's employment opportunities differently appear to have resulted in a relatively weaker fall-back position for women in labour markets." (Seguinoa, 1997) at that time it can be seen the effects of the conscription did not have much effect. Later in the 1990s after the economy took off and post globalization, the demand structure of the economy for personnel has changed.