​The Kyunghyang Forum, organized by Kyunghyang Daily Newspaper, prepares its third event in 2018. To date, the forum has been a venue of fruitful discussions about Korea and world current issues, and it has provided guidance for the future.

This year’s theme is ‘BEYOND $30000, Striving for a better tomorrow-Beyond inequality’. While the national incomes continue to grow, many people in the world are still denied the benefits of economic growth. The third forum offers the opportunities to discover the reasons and solutions of widening global inequality. This time, the forum features world-renowned scholars including two Nobel Laureates in Economics, Professor Joseph Stiglitz (2001) and Professor Angus Deaton (2015), who have analyzed the inequality problem and offered solutions. And a planner of the Hartz reforms for the German labor market, and an advocate of a basic income are invited as well. The participants will be highlighting a forum focused on ways to overcome global inequality to create a future of coexistence.

In the past, rapid economic growth naturally improved the distribution of wealth. However, in this era of structural low growth, the income distribution gap in our society is ever-worsening. Also, the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is just around the corner. The speed of technological development is accelerating with the improvement of the new 4IR technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving. But many experts predict that rapid technological development may disrupt the job market, and that people losing their jobs due to the new technologies will exacerbate economic inequality. The invited scholars will share their opinions about how to solve the income gap problems generated during such structural change.

In this year’s forum, we will discuss the sustainability of American Capitalism, the system that drives the world economy through extreme competition and economic discrimination. The possible degree of adopting the Nordic model of social democracy in Korean society will be studied. In order to chart a future direction for Korea, we will learn from the experience of German experts who have used various models, such as the Hartz reforms, to solve social disputes like labor-management conflicts. And we will examine various measures to resolve these new, decisive global issues, such as basic income and social enterprises.

The third forum will also review the structural inequality in Korean society, and the limits we have faced so far in our efforts to solve it. During the panel discussions, our renowned participants will suggest solutions for many social problems, which could be a useful lesson to Korean society as well.​