Until 1961, South Korea received a 3100 million dollar donation from the United States, a very high figure for the time, a privilege for being on the hottest frontier of the Cold War. This policy of foreign economic and military support continued for decades. The chaebols started to dominate the domestic economy and, eventually, began to become internationally competitive. Workers' saw their wages and working conditions steadily improve, which increased domestic consumption. And the country steadily rose from low income to middle income status by the 1980s.