Lee Bok Sun is planning to close her 28-year-old fruit store in Seoul for good. Many of her customers have switched to a new hypermarket owned by one of South Korea’s chaebol, the family-controlled business groups that dominate the economy. “My baby brother gave me the money to start this shop to thank me for the years I worked as a seamstress to pay for his college fees,” says Lee, 63, as she counts the day’s earnings from a batteredNike (NKE) shoebox. “He wouldn’t have gotten his job at a chaebol without that degree, and now I’m being put out of business by the same system I worked so hard to get him into.”

Since Lee moved to Seoul to sew clothes at 15, the business empires that include Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor have lifted the economy 22 places, to 15th in the World Bank’s ranking. As Koreans prepare to vote for a new president on Dec. 19, the public’s attention is focused on the cost of Korea’s chaebol-led success: a widening income gap, struggling small businesses, and the highest suicide rate in the developed world.

Read Here – Businessweek