In the US it depends on who your employer is. My company which is based in the US has an unlimited PTO policy. In principle I can take off as much as I want as long as it doesn’t impact performance.
Sure it’s kind of an accounting gimmick and it’s not like I can just disappear for 2 months straight but if you work in a good industry/company in the US the leave benefits can be outstanding…
Yeah, I don’t want Europe’s unemployment rate or its unlimited social safety net. I’ll keep the American way.
Taiwan won’t get more immigrants than needed. If there are no job opportunities, they won’t come.
What they pay in Taiwan is surely much higher than what they’re paid in the Philippines.
So how much annual leave do you and your colleagues take per year?
Also you cannot be fired at will in Taiwan. That’s pretty good.
About 4 weeks last year and 6 weeks in 2019. My company also allows me to work remote so I’ve been able to travel while working since I joined 4 years ago.
That is pretty sweet , a rare enough gig .
They’d still end up in Australia or the US because manufacturing would move back there if it cost the same as Taiwan. The only difference is the underpaid worker bees in Taiwan would be out of work.
First of all Taiwan already pays more than some Western countries such as Spain and we don’t see manufacturing rushing there. But regardless that is not how economics work. You are assuming the current world just that Taiwan pays more, well that’s not how it will happen. Taiwan will move up slowly as it has, just like TSMC and Mediatek, they will break the competition one by one (partly due to lower labor cost) and by the time they come out on top, both money and know-how will be on Taiwan’s side. But even if it comes to a tie with the west, manufacturing won’t just go back because it’s already here and it will cost money to set up a new supply chain on the other side of the planet.
And immigrants follow money (or rather where they think money is) already a lot of immigrants that I see here have chosen Taiwan over Italy, Spain and even a few cases of France and UK. If Taiwan keeps growing it will be competitive with the other ones as well. Again language barrier is a big problem but Taiwan doesn’t need them all anyways.
What’s your frame of reference? My reference is nearly twenty-five years of doing business in Taiwan as both a customer and supplier. I’ve done millions of dollars of business during that time, including consulting work on projects that shifted from Taiwan to Mexico purely on the basis of cost.
| Country | Number filed (year-on-year change) |
|---|---|
| United States | 44,293 (-4.1%) |
| Germany | 25,954 (-3.0%) |
| Japan | 21,841 (-1.1%) |
| China | 13,432 (+9.9%) |
| France | 10,554 (+3.1%) |
| South Korea | 9,106 (+9.2%) |
| Switzerland | 8,112 (-1.9%) |
| Netherlands | 6,375 (-8.2%） |
| Britain | 5,715 (-6.8%) |
| Italy | 4,600 (+2.9%) |
I know, I know you went to Georgia and whatnot but I don’t care. You have first hand experience with many companies, that is valuable and that’s why you make money but that is subjective and anecdotal. The basics of economics always triumphs regardless of people’s feeling or beliefs.
P.S. I may have less experience than you but I have also done R&D both here and in US and In don’t think the gap is that big. The approaches are different, in the US the education puts more value on big picture thinking while in Taiwan it’s mostly problem solving by focusing on one task at a time and it shows in their real world approach to stuff. So far the Eastern approach is winning in electronics industry.
Is there a reason you’re using EPO instead of the USPTO like most normal people?
Also, why patents filed instead of actually granted? China files mostly garbage.
I make my living as an inventor, including this one: Cycloid Cam - YouTube
Taiwan’s startup culture is abysmal. If you want to pitch a new idea you go to the U.S. and Japan if you want people to really get it. If you want to build it though you come to Taiwan because that’s the cheapest place to build it.
For those who have access to education or have completed it. Let’s be clear there’s a lot of diversity out there.
Countries specialise in stuff and small countries tend to because of their size anyway . Taiwans was remarkably successful in raising incomes until the 90s and rhen it dropped off mostly because of investment moving to China and politics . However incomes are definitely on the rise again , esepcially.in electronics which is a huge sector here , and many many workers and managers are earning a high income on a global basis. Their take home pay after tax is also good due to various tax rebates they can get and cheap medical insurance too. There’s a wide income disparity but actually less than other countries such as the US.
Government workers also have a sweet deal or at least did with generous early retirement schemes.
There’s also no real unemployment and very strong hiring right now with economic projections amongst the best in the world. There’s a massive amount of investment coming into Taiwan and it’s not leaving anytime soon. It may not be 'direct foreign investment ’ but it’s still investment that is funded by global investors and businesses .
These companies mostly aren’t investing in Taiwan because of labour costs (it’s still cheaper in a hundred other countries ) but because it’s a great place for them to access networked supply chain and run their businesses with relatively low fixed costs such as water and electricity and less carbon taxes. .
Isn’t there a consensus now that what’s bad for the environment is, ultimately, bad for the economy?
Regardless of #1, you need an exit strategy. If you aim for infinite growth, you will eventually fail, because everything comes to an end one way or another.
To put it another way, if an economic system requires infinite population growth, it’s essentially a Ponzi scheme.
Doesn’t need to grow infinitely. Staying stable or close, around 2.1, is fine, perhaps best. It’s rapid decline in birth rates that’s the problem.
Another thing to consider…