Skip to main content

Won for the money, to show

Image
By

Korean currency is denominated simply into Won.  Given inflation of the 70s, it now has lots of zeroes.  However, because the exchange rate is quite near USdollar decimals — at 1100won to the dollar, now increasing in value so it will soon be 1000won to the dollar — it is easiest for us to simply treat 1won as equaling 1/10 of a cent.  Thus, a one-thousand-won bill is like a dollar bill.   A ten-thousand-won bill is like a ten-dollar bill.  Easy!

I think the won has a bit better purchasing power also — many small items can be purchased for under a dollar, whereas it is rare for anything substantial in the US to be sold for under a dollar.
It is interesting to note that, just as in the US, coins are less and less important:  there is no coin valued as much as a dollar (unlike in Canada or Europe).

I would guess that the government in Korea has a problem similar to that of all mints — it now costs them more to produce and distribute small coins than those coins are actually worth!  The US penny and nickel cost the government around ten cents to produce.   To their credit, a couple years ago, Korea changed their penny-equivalent 10-won coin to a tiny copper-colored aluminum thing that’s hardly worth messing with.  And now, we use them only in grocery stores.
Because Korea uses the Value-Added Tax system that incorporates the consumption tax into the price of the goods, most products sell at nice even hundred- or thousand-won increments.   As a further benefit, the service charge (tip) is priced into all services — that is, No Tipping -- so it is wonderfully easy to budget and allocate spending money in restaurants, taxis, stores, etc.   and wonderfully easy to split the tab when dining with a group of people!

I wonder how much the US sales tax method of charging obscure percentages on top of a stated price actually costs in terms of miscalculated values, overcharged customers, time spent calculating and arguing over the calculation; add to that, time spent counting and dealing with pennies and nickels that such a percentage method causes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

String Quartet Broken String

By
  We attended a marvelous concert last night, at the Porto Museum of Casa do Infante , a beautifully-renovated 1325 building near the river.  At one point it served as a customs house.  The government sponsors Portuguese musicians to return from other European orchestras to perform in their homeland.  We heard and saw this group play a traditional piece – Haydn string quartet Opus 20 #2.  Then the modern Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti – the stunning last movement of which they performed as an encore.  They performed (and I recorded) the Shostakovich Quartet #9, during which the first-violinist broke a string (it features several strongly-plucked chords!) and had to retreat&repeat! 
Post a Comment
Read more

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

By
 As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico .  There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver.   Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government.  As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time.  I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government?   And what will it take to recover from the damage?  Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever?   Only ni...
Post a Comment
Read more

Música Tunas e Boémia

By
  We attended an unusual concert last night:  Música Tunas e Boémia (bands and parties) University student folk-music groups — big groups of 40 and more each!  put on a great show of singing, playing, flag-twirling, tambourine-swinging, all at the major (private) concert hall.  The most unusual thing about it was that nobody used any electronic device (except for microphone amplification)—no electric guitar or keyboard, no big drum set…every instrument and prop was hand-held.  The singing was quite good, given the effort to synchronize 40 voices.  
Post a Comment
Read more