Olivia TS#5

On Monday, September 17th, I met with Yun Jung at CIES at 9 AM. We talked about a variety of things, including American politics, how states can decide their own tax codes, and labor unions. As per Yun Jung, the South Korean labor market is very different. Service positions such as mechanics, plumbers, and electricians, are not valued as much as Americans value those services. I explained how labor unions work, how important they were in the 20th century, and how they do not play that large of a role in today's economy. We also talked about taxes, as American states can choose how to tax. For example, New Hampshire does not have any taxes, except sales tax on certain products. Due to this, they do not have many social services. This is different from California, which is known to have very high taxes but really nice social services. The tax codes in a way are a marker of the state's culture, and we discussed all of this. Overall, I enjoyed our conversation.