My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and now I am a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                       In a capitalist, democratic society, whatever we produce is what we value. This value

can be cash that we spend to buy something or a product we make that we use in everyday life as well

as business. One thing that just about everyone wants is to own private property. Private property can be

land, a house, an apartment or condominium, a car, or a small business. With it we can live, we can further

produce, or we can buy and sell for something better. Any way we look at it we wish to own it as well as

hold on to it and protect it. And with trying to own and protect what is ours we make laws that guarantee

our rights to own private property as well as personal property (such as furniture, gold and silver, consumer

goods, luxury items, etc.) so we can enjoy a better quality of life. While ownership of property and personal

property is not always seen as a human right, if we are dispossessed of all that we have legally earned

then we have had our human rights just as violated as we have if we are not allowed to practice freedom

of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of peaceful assembly, and so on. Taking

away all that we have earned to punish people for their dissent is just as much a human rights violation

as all other rights. In so many ways it is worse because it destroys our quality of life and the life we try

to make. in Communist states like North Korea, no one is allowed to own land or their own private house.

This means that beyond basic survival, work is nothing more than trying to earn money for the things

we need to just live (food, paying the bills, maybe buying a few personal items) than things we want to

do to build a better life. For those of us who make far more money than most others, that is what taxes

are for. However, laws that are made by powerful politicians to seize private and even personal property

to "redistribute" the wealth to the poor and needy is a dangerous aspect that takes away what those of

us have made to give to all others making everyone poor all around. Such laws take away what we may

have produced and what we have legally acquired. This has happened in such socialist countries like

Venezuela where those who had a better quality of life and more private property (although not rich) had

their lands and even personal property confiscated by the government to "help the poor." In truth it did not

help the poor, and those who had anything became poor and dispossessed themselves---leading to the

disintegration of the state and state infrastructure. What has happened in Venezuela should be a warning

to not only people in South Korea but to everyone of the dangers of what socialism and socialist ideas

can bring.