Sokjukjeokryeo (). This idiom means cutting one's feet to fit into shoes. Cases of forcing reality to conform to unrealistic systems, known as Sokjukjeokryeo, occur frequently. In 17th-century Britain, when a house tax was levied based on the number of windows, people simply bricked up their windows. In the former Soviet Union, since nail production output was measured solely by weight, only enormous nails that could not be used in industrial sites were produced. Sometimes, guidelines and performance metrics shape outcomes.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "Everyone's Startup" program provided 20 thousand won each to 5,000 first-round successful applicants as startup activity funds. The funds can be broadly used for purchasing materials, outsourcing services, buying literature, paying transaction fees, travel expenses, and meeting costs. As long as a single payment does not exceed 500,000 won, expenditures can be made freely without approval from mentor institutional investors.
However, the first-round recipients who received the funds are raising alarms that the usage guidelines are far removed from reality. One participant could not make a payment to visit a local mentor institutional investor because they would have to take KTX or an express bus, and "cancellation fees would be charged." Another person trying to buy a laptop under 500,000 won was blocked due to the item being classified as "capital goods." They could not purchase materials for prototype production from online shopping malls either, because all online payments were fundamentally blocked. Complaints also followed about having to visit offline stores while walking around.
Amidst this, an announcement appeared stating that any funds not used by August 31 would be reclaimed entirely. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups also indicated that fund expenditure records would be reflected in the evaluation criteria for the next round. Participants were gripped by a compulsion to spend the 2nd million won quickly within the roughly two-month period. The easiest option was indeed "travel expenses and meeting costs." Testimonies poured in about people taking taxis even for short distances, visiting high-end restaurants, and rapidly spending startup funds. Since the money could not be used where it was truly needed for startups, it effectively became a "20 thousand won corporate card."
Ideally, there should be post-use monitoring to verify whether the trips were genuinely necessary or if meals and drinks were actually used for startup-related meetings. However, currently, neither the plans nor the capacity for such oversight exist. It is questionable whether the total of 10 billion won in startup funds was used appropriately given the loose usage guidelines. In this year's second "Everyone's Startup," the number of first-round qualifiers will be increased to 10,000, distributing another 20 billion won in the same manner. Next year, the amount per person will be raised to 5 million won. With an additional 20,000 people selected for the first round, 100 billion won could end up being spent this way again.
At the beginning of the year, President Lee Jae-myung declared a "National Startup Era" and stated, "We also expect second, third, and N-th rounds of Everyone's Startup," previewing annual repeated implementation. This is why it is necessary to rectify the loose guidelines now and begin considering how to detect and recover any future misuse.
in OPINION
