"You're pushing the self-employed to the grave."Merchants 'sigh' Will Consumer Sentiment Shrink

Debate on people's livelihoods on the theme of 'Small business owners, self-employed business owners, and lively alley businesses running again' / Yonhap News

President Yoon Suk Yeol, who held a "people's livelihood debate" and promised to support small business owners and self-employed people, lifted the emergency martial law just a day later.

As a result, voices of criticism against the government are increasing among small business owners and self-employed people.

This is due to concerns that the declaration of martial law will further slow the domestic economy in a difficult situation due to the economic downturn.

On the 4th, an online community where self-employed people gather has posted a number of articles worrying about their livelihoods since the declaration of an emergency decree issued on the night of the 3rd.

Most of the comments are about whether the business will be safe or not, and most of them are concerned that frozen consumer sentiment will shrink further.

Self-employed people responded, "Isn't it that the people can't go outside?" "You just push the dying self-employed to a graveyard," "If you can't do business even for a few days, it will lead to bankruptcy. Martial law?" "It's like a bolt out of the blue for self-employed people," and "You smashed self-employed people." President

Yoon presided over his first public livelihood debate in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do on the 2nd under the theme of 'Small Business Owners, Self-employed Businesses, and Vibrant Alley Business District running again'.

At the meeting, President Yoon announced support measures such as a reduction in delivery app fees and relief measures for damage from no-show and malicious reviews.

In particular, President Yoon said at the forum, "It is very important to fundamentally boost consumer sentiment beyond supporting self-employed people," adding that the government will seek proactive measures to boost domestic consumption.

However, only about 30 hours after the people's livelihood debate ended, an emergency public address was held at 10:23 p.m. the previous day and an emergency martial law was declared.

The emergency martial law was lifted in six hours, but events scheduled at the end of the year were also canceled one after another. Merchants around them are also complaining that they will not be able to avoid the financial damage caused by this.

Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team