There is a strong tendency on this board to overgeneralize based on personal experience. Some of that comes with living in a foreign country and thinking your experiences are more profound than they are. You guys often correct each other, but not all the time.
I majored in economics for my undergrad. If someone else did too, speak up. Some of the comments in this thread fly in the face of economic reasoning, and some don’t align with facts.
First, stricter labor laws/mandated salaries do not make your economy grow faster, it does the opposite. This may be counter-intuitive. But a firm cannot close down factories to produce at the most efficient level in the short run. If they can’t fire or are forced to pay people a wage that’s not efficient, that’s a double whammy because both capital and labor are fixed.
Second, some of the things said here are factual. Some aren’t. Income taxes too high??? This is especially odd coming from those of you from Europe.
Taiwan is pre-tax, the most egalitarian societies on the planet.
Scandinavian countries are about as equal after taxes.
@OysterOmelet Lots of interesting things in your post, but I do wish to complicate this statement:
The problem here is using income, and not wealth, to measure equality. They are not the same. And based on the latter, Taiwan is a highly inequal society.
When your wages and labor laws are so bad that workers care little if nothing about their work they do impede your economy and they are stopping growth
I am referring to “wealth” as total assets and debts, in contrast to “income.” I am using these terms sociologically to talk about social inequality. My source is Oliver and Shapiro’s remarkable study Black Wealth / White Wealth, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2006). It’s a great book and well worth checking out.
Taiwan needs people investing in new enterprises. Taiwanese refuse to
Also, overseas companies coming in and offering decent labor standards could be the panacea for the whole economy to improve. Which is one of the reasons for the resistance from both DPP and kmt
You guys acting that ultra conservative Tsai and her corrupt minions are in any way reformers is just cute. Tsai is in no way more economic savvy than Ma. Both the DPP and KMT are the same bar one single issue.
