How South Korea's silicon belt is changing its society
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KUHN: Yeungnam University sociologist Huh Changdeog says that the silicon-collar workers are now seen by other workers as aristocrats. Many Samsung workers making TVs and smartphones are bitter that their bonuses were just 1% of their chip-making colleagues'. Huh says the downside to the chip boom is a sense of alienation, which could tear the fabric of South Korean society.

HUH CHANGDEOG: Social anger.

(Through interpreter) When social anger arises and increases, society does not move forward stably, and things like random crimes start occurring frequently.

KUHN: South Korean chipmakers benefited from decades of state backing and bailouts at taxpayers' expense, but Huh argues that workers who threaten to strike seem to have forgotten this.

HUH: (Through interpreter) Negotiations should take place within a scope that accounts for reinvestment and allows the company to continue growing, rather than acting as if all the surplus was achieved solely through their efforts.

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