There’s An Obvious Way to Create More Jobs.

[Commentary] With the highest percentage of fibered homes in the world, and fiber-connected cell towers everywhere, all kinds of digitally enhanced mobile wireless possibilities have emerged in Seoul, South Korea. 5G won’t be a panacea for South Korea. There are genuine structural issues in Seoul that won’t be solved by technology. Like other major cities, affordable housing is a huge problem. Traffic congestion is awful — worse than New York City — and inequality is growing. As the mayor of Seoul, Won Soon Park, put it earlier in 2016, “Low growth is becoming firmly entrenched, drawing a deep, dark shade over our entire economy.” But with innovation on its side — Bloomberg says South Korea ranks first in the world as an innovative economy — South Korea hopes to use the new wizardry of wireless/fiber to create whole new categories of occupations (not just new jobs) for its people.

[Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center.]