So what is going on here? Everytime I turn on the news or read the paper its always so and so is getting more expensive, or electricity rate hike, or whatever is going up in price. So why is it that we are in such a dismal state where things are getting more expensive each day yet there has been no increase in average salary? how do we expect to live??
Is it time to stock up on rations in case cost of food and living becomes unbearable?
People who would normally rise up have been replaced with immigrant workers who have no vote. The plan is to only have rich people in future. The poor are notoriously bad voters anyway. Sorry, are you talking about America or Taiwan? [edit: I see you are talking about Taiwan 
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What do you think is going to happen! Its economics. Taiwan is losing its competitive advantage to China, so the dollar will start devaluing. So what happens is either wages decrease (Migrant workers) or unemployment due to work shifting overseas. Inflation (cost of goods going up) is generally caused by either too much money in circulation or a devaluation of the Taiwan dollar. Electricity rate hikes are likely caused by the increasing cost of resources. (i.e. coal / uranium)
On the investment side of things, I see a continual shift of jobs (given that Taiwan is primarily in manufacturing) from Taiwan to China since Taiwan’s competitive advantage is decreasing all the time. I can’t see how things will improve here and I would not buy a property for investment purposes (the stockmarket here is pure gambling)
I received this morning the results of a Taiwanese consumer Survey… R
Economical welth is down the drain.
38% of Taiwanese consumers think that situation will get worse
63% plans to save money on Out of home leisure (KTV, disco etc)
43% will postpone buying new hardware such as mobiles, PC upgrades…
25% will buy cheaper lunch boxes…
and… only 5% will buy cheaper alcohol… and 4% will give up smoking or quit.
They do know their values it seems…
Well can u get anything cheaper than 7-11 Gaoliang and Cigerettes for $50NT?
Look on the bright side, they wont have to save for retirement…
taiwan is in transition from manufacturing to a services based economy… just like australia, uk, us et al have done in the past. its a tough period yes but i really dont think this place will collapse anytime soon.
taiwan may be losing its comp advantage in certain areas to china but taiwan doesnt want to be in that space anymore. again economics.
what needs to change here is a seismic shift in how the voting public and the politicians handles such a young democracy. stock markets should not be influenced by the govt and there should be no govt interference in the media either. this will open peoples eyes. people harp on about the good ole days when the stock market was ‘safe’ etc etc. personally i feel that once people stop assuming the govt is there to fix all ails taiwan will rise again.
what i am trying to say - there isnt really anything wrong structurally with the economy or opportunities for this place looking forward, its more (i personally think) a mind set issue where everyone harks back to the ‘good old days’. institutionalised corruption etc etc certainly doesnt help.
Nope… it won’t collapse, Taiwan has a reasonably healthy internal economy unlike China… I see a slow decline… but do you really think it can make a transition to a services based economy? I don’t see that anytime soon…you’re an optimist. Its so rare to get good service in this country that you shower praise on people that do!
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taiwan may be losing its comp advantage in certain areas to China but taiwan doesnt want to be in that space anymore. again economics.[/quote]
Yeh, so like Japan, its going to be stuck between a rock and a hardplace. Japan never really succeed in moving out of its manufacturing based roots. I have my own theories on that (such as their unique culture), however Taiwan isn’t at the top of the manufacturing food chain. Its about halfway actually…Korea, Japan, Germany, US, Singapore are all better, but I concede that Taiwan has its niche. If you want to move up the manufacturing food chain, you need to up the knoweldge base… and that sucks in a country where its still difficult to protect IP.
[quote=“AWOL”]
what needs to change here is a seismic shift in how the voting public and the politicians handles such a young democracy. stock markets should not be influenced by the govt and there should be no govt interference in the media either. this will open peoples eyes. people harp on about the good ole days when the stock market was ‘safe’ etc etc. personally I feel that once people stop assuming the govt is there to fix all ails taiwan will rise again.[/quote]
I agree that the situation needs to be fixed at a political level. But first you need to fix the politicians.
[quote=“AWOL”]
what I am trying to say - there isnt really anything wrong structurally with the economy or opportunities for this place looking forward, its more (I personally think) a mind set issue where everyone harks back to the ‘good old days’. institutionalised corruption etc etc certainly doesnt help.[/quote]
I didn’t know that people hark back to the ‘good old days’. That sounds exactly like how Japanese hark back to their ‘economic miracle’. The miracle of cheap labour and copied products!
I’m not actually sure how you stop corruption in Taiwan. You’d think that with the politicians being so rich and all, that it would have removed the incentive to be corrupt. But I see Taiwan as a country that is simply too focused on money… as an Australian, I’m sure you can see that.
hey tycoon
i am not saying taiwan will become a services based economy, but rather that it NEEDS to. there arent other options.
i dont mean services as in hospitality but rather R&D, fianncial services, logistics, health, IT etc etc. and yes I think with the right mindset from the people it can/will be done.
personally i am not a big believer in the china miracle. my money is on india or vietnam.
Well, I think we are in complete agreement then. They do need to move into being a service based economy. Perhaps they can do it with China in mind…Of course the UK has its empire to sell its specialist services too. Taiwan doesn’t have the luxury of English as a first langauge.
Yup… I think China is moving way ahead of itself and its all gonna come crashing down in a big way. I don’t know what you seen in Vietnam, I think their economic growth is going to be very strong and more sustainable than China’s… certainly they’ll punch above their weight, but what do u think is unique about Vietnam? I’ve been there and I was impressed with the work ethic and honesty of the people. Another advantage is that they understand the services industry because their economy is based around it.
As for India… they are going to be the one to watch, I agree.
U forgot to mention the Filipines. I think if they can get off their lazy arses and stamp out corruption, they could beat Taiwan hands down. Remember in the 60’s the migrant labour was going the other way. Filipines has the advantage of English…just lots of problems that could be solved with lots of foreign investment / involvement.
Also, I know u didn’t mean just hospitality, but its the mindset that goes with hospitality that enable you to begin focusing on your customer as another human being not just some guy u will never meet who will buy a widget once.