Karma

He frequently caused various kinds of accidents. Once, he crashed into a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, an incident that would easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, the owner of the S-Class was an elderly grandfather who minimized any extra charges and handled it quietly through his insurance. Thanks to that, my friend was able to get away safely without spending a massive amount of money, despite causing a complete rear-end collision.

Yet, when he was the one who got into an accident—specifically, when an elderly female driver hit him and caused him an injury—he admitted himself into the most expensive oriental medicine hospital in Korea, checked into the maximum treatment course, and milked the situation for every single penny possible. Watching him proudly brag about what he did with the money he earned that way, I became absolutely certain that he lacked the character to ever become successful.

Astonishingly, Korea is filled with so many people who possess the rotten mindset of using a traffic accident as an opportunity to head straight to an oriental medicine hospital to score a huge payout. The other party caused me damage? How dare they, to me? Without a shred of forgiveness, they visit a hospital they wouldn’t normally step foot in to extract the maximum cost, spending an enjoyable time playing the part of a fake patient. When they make a mistake themselves, they desperately hope to be forgiven, and despite having received leniency before, they cannot tolerate the mistakes of others when the roles are reversed.

Is this phenomenon unique to Korea? Yes. Korea is a nation with an unprecedentedly high installation rate of vehicular dashcams. And parents directly teach their children exactly how to behave when a traffic accident occurs; nowadays, even elementary school kids learn the fact that "an oriental medicine hospital is a place you go when you get into a car accident, and it is an expensive place."

What on earth are they teaching them? Are they providing early education on how to expect one's own mistakes to be overlooked while bleeding the other party dry for their mistakes? Why do they fail to remember when they were forgiven, and refuse to forgive when the opportunity to do so arrives?

I no longer believe in the childish delusion that poverty equates to goodness. Those who were terrifyingly harsh to others solely for their own profit never managed to grasp abundance, and they will likely find it difficult to become affluent in the future as well. Was it their pockets that were poor, or was it their souls? It is cause and effect.