A Microcosm of Korea
Today I got on the bus to go to work. Yes, it's Saturday. I always make sure when I leave the house to have my 700 won (juan) for the fare. Today I seemed to have forgotten the bus fare. Now, in America what would happen to old Bret? He would be rudely and hurridly removed from the bus. In Korea he is simply told to not worry about it. The bus driver just kindly, and I do mean kindly; not sarcastic or aloof, told me to sit down. So I started watching everybody get on the bus. There was no automatic way of checking to see if someone paid the 700 won. They just dump change into this little plastic box and nothing counts it. No one seems to really care. I can only imagine how much money they lose daily from the wrong amount of change being put into the box. Then I started to get my weird little entrepenurial mind going.
