CASH ONLY

Lucky me, I get to go to a local farmer’s market weekly where I live. It’s open rain or shine all year long. One of my favorite venders there just put up a sign that reads CASH ONLY: RESIST THE DIGITAL CONTROL GRID.

Well, this got me to thinking about how much cash is used in Kdramas. Right now I’m watching ‘My Mister.’ It’s from 2018, and if you haven’t watched it, you should. It’s heavy drama, and although I haven’t finished it, and I’m dreading the ending, it’s so good. The two main characters are portrayed by Lee Sun-kyun and IU. Sadly, Lee Sun-kyun ended his life in 2023. IU has gone on to act in many well-received Kdramas.

Okay, $$$. In this show there are many white envelopes being passed back and forth that are stuffed with money to pay people ‘under the table’ for nefarious activities. This could never be accomplished without cash. What would work? VENMO? I don’t think so. People who don’t carry cash - my children and just about everyone else I know - would have a very hard time slipping someone some payola for a not-above-board activity.

Luckily for all these back room negotiations, the won comes in a variety of denominations from 1,000 to 50,000. 50,000 is about $35 in American money. So when IU is paid 10,000,000 won ($7,000USD) to do something nasty, the envelope she is slipped doesn’t have to be the

size of a small suitcase. I’m figuring she is given about 200 bills. Whoa, that’s a hefty package! Frankly, none of the envelopes look that big, but this is not IRL* as my kids say.

Now you see why VENMO won’t work? I hope I don’t have to spell it out for you. ~Pat

*IRL in real life. Shoutout to my neighbor’s daughter for this

It's Judy and naturally I notice the cash also.... but I also notice two other things. Firstly when paying bribes I'm absolutely fascinated that they use envelopes that are the 'opposite' of what Americans use. As you know from my previous posts an envelope that opens on the short side is called a catalog envelope; those that open on the long side are called a booklet envelope. America predominately uses booklet envelopes. Korea uses catalog envelopes. Weird to me.

Secondly ... Koreans supply their bank account number freely to everybody! When people need to repay a friend they just ask for the bank info & voila the money is moved to their account. In contrast Americans protect their bank info as if it's Fort Knox. I have several good friends and no, I don't know their account numbers.