Successful real estate reform begins with citizens' absolute belief and awareness that "real estate inequality must be reformed."
As long as we remain mired in the illusion that "my home price should rise, but I hope it falls for the nation as a whole," real estate inequality will not be resolved for the next generation, and in fact, it will deepen.
In the end, it will become an escalator leading to national ruin.
Carrying the suffering of countless citizens.
--- From the "Preface"

Actually, the phrase 'there is no land' is quite strange.
It's always been there, it's immovable property, yet there's no earthquake or volcanic eruption, so how can there be no land? For hundreds of years, Joseon officials complained about land shortages and cried out in unison, "There's no land." Yet, land has always existed.
It's just that the land already had an owner.
Even though the lands they acquired as meritorious subjects, as members of the nobility, as the wives of officials, and as their descendants completely nullified the financial system of the nation that had been initially designed, no one mentioned the fundamental principles established by the architects of Joseon.
To say that it was 'complete redistribution through complete dismantling' is a painful statement.

--- From "The Privileged Class Begins Land Privatization"

It's the same reason that big players are following the National Pension Service's investments these days.
Since it was a project invested by the Jinheulcheong, big players in Seoul also took interest.
They obtain development rights for large areas of land after obtaining early access to development information and registration guidelines.
Then, they sold the land to others under the pretext of development rights.
They don't even bother to cultivate the land, but wait for someone to cultivate it and then 'rob' half of the crop.
When the Four Major Rivers Project or the Administrative Capital Relocation Project was in progress, the image of the "Seoul land tycoon" who bought land in promising areas in advance, or the "Tteodabang" (a type of real estate investment company) who put their eggs in every real estate in hot development areas, or the act of acquiring farmland under false pretenses and then splitting it up and selling it, comes to mind, right?
--- From "Who ate all that land?"

Land prices are a real headache.
From a distance, it seems that the gains and losses when land prices rise and fall are applied equally to everyone.
But if you look closely, when it goes up, the gains go mainly to the rich, and when it goes down, the losses go mainly to the common people.
So, Joseon operated a large-scale social security system called Hwan-gok to provide broad coverage to those who suffered great losses whenever prices and land prices fluctuated.
However, as the grain tax system began to lose its character as a welfare system, the fence that could protect the people when land prices fluctuated also gradually disappeared.

--- From "Who ate all that land?"

Of course, regulation isn't always a bad thing.
There is always a socio-cultural context behind the emergence of regulations that made them inevitable.
In other words, a regulation is an inevitable outcome of dialectical history.
The media's crossfire tends to focus on the regulation itself, neglecting or ignoring the social issues behind the regulation and its solutions.
Therefore, criticism that simply demonizes regulation is never justified.
However, real estate regulations alone are not enough to solve the major problem of housing shortage.
Regulations inevitably have unintended consequences.
Policymakers excuse this by calling it the "balloon effect."
However, any rational policymaker would also consider the inevitable side effects that will arise as the policy is implemented.
If we regulate without doing so, it is highly likely that it will end up being a case of ‘good intentions disguised as a cover-up.’

--- From "The Landscape of Bokdeokbang in Joseon Created by Housing Shortages"

The situation at the time was like this.
Numerous problems were emerging, including rising prices and a declining currency value due to unprecedented crop failures, a political situation with no answers due to the emergence of the Lee Yang-seon and the Se-do regime, public unrest, and a depleted national treasury.
In this moment of crisis, people are investing en masse in real estate.
The value of land and housing has been highlighted.
Did they also have the belief that "house prices would eventually rise"? We don't know, but it's clear that they had sufficient expectations of housing as a "safe asset."

--- From "Housing Prices in the Late Joseon Dynasty: A Peek Through Transaction Documents"

What went wrong? Perhaps the very idea of ​​land nationalization was flawed? If so, it would be fatal to us living in the modern world.
Because many of the solutions devised to address the real estate problems of our time are based on the concept of public land ownership.
The concept of public land is the theoretical basis for limiting ownership rights or imposing obligations on land to ensure the public nature and rational use of land.
Although the concept is somewhat different from the nationalization of land based on the royal land ideology of the Joseon Dynasty, the goal of pursuing public interest through public sanctions on private property is the same.
However, it seems difficult to say that Joseon's ideal itself was wrong.
Because, despite great efforts, Joseon has never succeeded in nationalizing land.
Every time the government tried to restrain the market based on the ideology of land nationalization, it was met with surprisingly natural and sophisticated opposition from interested parties.


The government has consistently been complacent in its approach to housing issues.
We have pressured people with various regulatory policies, but we have not been able to closely examine the flow of market formation and growth.
In particular, despite the urgent need for a large-scale supply policy, the capital city of Hanyang maintained its position that it could not expand even an inch, and only occasionally implemented policies such as reorganizing administrative districts or leasing vacant lots to the public.
There was a single attempt to reverse that trend by building a new city in Mars and relocating the administrative capital, but that opportunity vanished like a spring dream.
Why would that be? Perhaps the court wasn't particularly concerned about Hanyang's housing shortage.
For example, the problem of illegal construction that persisted throughout the early Joseon Dynasty was triggered by concerns about royal authority and public safety.
The public rental policy for soldiers was part of a policy to strengthen national defense capabilities.
The ban on multiple homes for high-ranking officials was an ethical issue related to corruption.
In other words, the ultimate goal of all policies that can be called housing policies was not to ‘resolve the housing shortage.’

The technological innovations we are witnessing now may create a 'post-work society' that seemed like a dream.
It may already be too late to return to the universal value of 'owning as much as you work, paying taxes as much as you own', a world where people can determine their lives through their work.
But those who are left behind in the rush of technological innovation are also citizens and members of our community.
We must keep in mind that without them, our achievements would be empty.
The landowners of Joseon did not know.
That in the future, you too could become a vulnerable person and be exploited by someone.
We too often forget.
The moment we become intoxicated with our achievements and turn a blind eye to the inequalities in our community, we may fall into the abyss of despair that it creates.
Perhaps the real estate reform we so desperately desire will begin not with a yearning for equality, but with an acceptance that fairness can be detrimental to us.

--- From "Reopening the Writing"