ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the phenomenon of the declining Korean middle class and describes some important social and cultural aspects of this change. It discusses the neoliberal globalization has transformed economic inequality into more keenly felt social and cultural forms of inequality, thereby intensifying class distinction within the middle class. A country that had enjoyed a relatively equitable pattern of income distribution during the period of rapid economic development, Korea began to experience a rapid increase of income inequality in the mid-1990s. Thus, a major social concern in Korea today is the polarization of income distribution and the endangered status of the middle class. A new marketing label that appeared at the turn of the century and became widely used in popular media and advertising was welbing. Well-being, of course, implies a better, healthier, and wholesome quality of life. The well-being culture spread quickly in the early 2000s and commodified the traditional notion of health and wholesomeness.
