Samsung’s Influence on Korean Society Runs Deep

Samsung’s influence runs deep through Korean society. Whilst some employees extol the raise in living standards exchanged for their long hours; others suffer disease, disenfranchisement, and death. Subscribe to Journeyman here: From heavy industry and infrastructure; to university funding and theme parks, the extent of the development lead by Samsung in South Korea is astonishing. Unsurprisingly some view the corporation as a munificent guarantor of life and prosperity: “I live with my family in a Samsung housing complex. Mine is very pleasant. We lack nothing.” However, prosperity for some becomes calamity for others. Problems relating to chemicals in a semi-conductor factory have been associated with the death of an engineer to leukemia, as well as to the debilitating brain tumor developed by a worker mounting LCD screens. Elsewhere, employees have been dismissed or sued for attempting to establish unions that w