Why choose to work and settle in taiwan?

I meant metric bazillions, BTW.

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Sounds a bit like warning people not to eat the food because it’s terrible, then offering to eat their meal for them.
:slight_smile:

Can’t believe I just read that whole thread …Ahh, Sunday morning in Winnipeg on the first snow; I’m just avoiding the second dump of snow I have to shovel, after over an hour shovelling yesterday. Why is Taiwan so horrible again???

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Because of them. Yer know… MOTOR CYCLERS. Those fellas will find ya ANYWHERE! On the streets, on sidewalks, in your bedroom, in your closet! You go hiking, and there, atop 1km mountain, there be a Gogoro Scooter. What’s he doing there? Waiting, lad. What’s he waiting for? He’s waiting for you, lad. Waiting for you to DIIIIIIIIIE, in a, well, scooter-related accident. Gogoro is electric, you’ll never hear what gets you. Silent, but deadly.

Anyway, jokes aside, that’s the part I never managed to deal with - Taiwanese driving style. You walk on the street - you’re on the nerves. You expect them to approach from every angle. Constant stress. This alone makes this country big nuh-uh for me to stay longer than my contract requires right now.

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In my 8 years in Taiwan, I had a scooter for 6 of those (I stopped taking public transit around the time of SARS, go figure).

I get it, the traffic is maddening and dangerous, especially if you drive with Western sensibilities. I had a couple of minor fender benders, but I never assumed that anyone followed the road rules, and just drove as part of the herd - it seemed to work.

With my boy turning 6, I am not sure what I think. Would I bring him on the scooter, get a car, or stick to MRT/ public transit? It definitely tests what you really think about the matter when it isn’t just you in the picture. Food for thought.

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Big Pharma is investing in the island as the fields of biomedical research is growing here. Tech and engineering is the old taiwan. Biomedical is the future here.

I also read the whole thread and was expecting more positive comments, makes me wonder why most of you are living here.

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There really isn’t a perfect place for everyone. I’ve lived in many places. I tend to miss things about them often and remember the good things. Then I go back and it’s great for a week visiting. And then I remember why I don’t live there anymore. Most of the complaints seemed to be about driving. I don’t personally feel like the driving is bad here if you just accept people here don’t drive like other places. I was more shocked by how nonchalant pedestrians are in the US when I moved there. They have no care in the world and take their time crossing the road. I thought they were crazy and annoying in my perspective. But then I just accepted it. You can bitch or adapt. But I’m guessing there’s a good reason why people left their home country, if it was so good. No reason to even pack up and leave in the first place.

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Mandatory genetic re-engineering coming your way soon, made in Taiwan! Dangerous diseases will be eradicated, but we might tweak your genes to make you more docile. Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing.

Taiwan is heaven for bosses and hell for workers. America is the opposite. It’s as simple as that. If you own a business in Taiwan and you’re halfway capable you can live in a nice apartment, travel, eat good food and send your children to good schools.

It’s also an easy place to live simply/poor. It’s safe. Medical care is good and cheap. Rents are cheap. Food is cheap. Public transportation is cheap. Government is laissez-faire.

If you’re middle class though with a family and not cut out to be a boss or live simply Taiwan is a dead end.

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hourlywage

Totally agree, Taiwan labour is like at least 4x times cheaper than Germans labour. Naturally being employee in Germany is better. And being boss is better, easier in Taiwan. No need to be really creative, organised, when you can pay your worker 4 times less. Who cares about margin, and marketing strategy, when you have skilled people working for peanuts.

Taiwanese worker cost are the same as Hungarian worker. So Taiwanese economical miracle was so great, now people can actually earn same wages as folks in eastern Europe, who suffered 50 years of Russian communism and international isolationism. I wonder why no one one call Australian growth a miracle.

Last time i was in Hungary, great dinner for me & wife, less than 10 euros, including drinks. I liked it, i love Hungary, as long i do not have Hungarian boss, and Hungarian employees wage.Then i would fucking hate Hungary. Simple as this

Sorry but that is far from the reality. Not saying that the wages are good in Taiwan, but the wages are far worse anywhere in Eastern Europe, still. If you’re bothered to check Eurostats you’d realise that Hungary’s average monthly wage is probably 35 - 40% of Taiwan’s, and this graph isn’t telling the whole story, or any story at all. You really believe that Greek workers earn more than Korean ones? Average wage in Greece isn’t even half of Korea’s.

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Yea agree, does not show whole picture, but it shows how cheap taiwanese bosses are. Ofc taiwanese are way richer than hungarians, but there is still a lot of people working for really low wages in taiwan. There must be like one or two millions south east asians working for around 20k twd per month.

Yeah true, and it’s nauseating how easy it is for them to influence the policies. It’s fucking pathetic.

If Taiwan raised its wages on par with western countries it would go out of business because it doesn’t innovate and doesn’t have any natural resources. Its only advantage is low cost. Taiwan would then be an economic wasteland comparable to some African country.

The graph is specifically for manufacturing and says “compensation” without elaborating on whether or not it accounts for non-monetary compensation, so it’s not entirely clear what’s being compared.

It sounds like you missed our exciting “labor reform” discussion earlier this year!

Jotham doesn’t come around much these days. Do any of our resident libertarians, covfefists or anti-socialists care to take up the torch of his Crusade Against Keynes? :smile:

I’ve been living the “Taiwan dream” since 1997 so I already know where all the bodies are buried. In fact I helped bury a few of them myself.

You killed Jotham?! :scream:

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Is this a dream? I noticed no postings for a while. Not a complaint, or even a hope they return. The quiet has been nice.

I am more than aware that a lot of people think that about me as well.