Cheong Wa Dae on the 12th said of Chief of Policy Kim Yong-bum's "national dividends" proposal that "what the Deputy Minister posted on social media is a personal opinion unrelated to internal discussions or reviews at Cheong Wa Dae." Kim said a mechanism is needed to return the fruits of the artificial intelligence (AI) era to all citizens, but as the market read it as "excess profit recovery" from semiconductor corporations such as Samsung Electronics, causing ripples, Cheong Wa Dae moved to contain it within a day.
The Deputy Minister earlier the previous night wrote on Facebook, "The fruits of the AI infrastructure era are not the result of specific corporations alone," adding, "They come from an industrial base that all citizens have built together over half a century." Kim went on, "Some of those fruits must be structurally returned to all citizens," and tentatively named it "national dividends." Specifically mentioned were a youth startup asset, a basic income program for rural communities, support for artists, strengthening the old age pension, and an AI-era transition education account.
The Deputy Minister said, "Excess profits in the AI era are inherently concentrated," and that only classes with access to productive assets—such as shareholders of memory corporations, key engineers, and holders of assets in the capital region—will benefit through market mechanisms. By contrast, Kim saw that a considerable share of the middle class enjoys only indirect effects such as improved purchasing power from a stronger won, limited fiscal transfer, and some asset gains.
The post was intended to suggest reviewing social returns based on "excess tax revenues" stemming from semiconductors. The Deputy Minister also wrote in the post, "If excess tax revenues do not arise, national dividends are an empty story," adding, "If the argument holds, then letting the fruits of those excess profits flow away without any principle is the more irresponsible choice."
However, as words such as "excess profits" and "excess gains," which could be read as returns from corporations' profits, were used simultaneously, it led to market confusion, and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), which had opened higher that day, reversed lower. When U.S. business outlet Bloomberg analyzed that "the cause of the KOSPI's 5% plunge is the Deputy Minister's national dividends proposal," the Deputy Minister said, "The intent is not to impose a new windfall tax on corporations' profits, but to use excess tax revenues that naturally increased thanks to the AI industry boom."