The only reason why India gets called a land of opportunities is because they’ve got a shit ton of people.
This chart shows Taiwanese migration to Australia plummeting from 2000 to 2006. Are you saying Taiwan was a land of golden opportunity in the 2000s?
It shows that Taiwan was NOT a land of golden opportunity in the 80s and 90s, not that it was a land of golden opportunity in the 00s.
If anything, Australia is a land of opportunities, and has been for a while.
Ok, whatever you say must be right. Massive amounts of people have also migrated from China over the last 20 years. Would you say that China has also never been a land of economic opportunity (or at least not in the last 20 years)?
Kinda like India, China has been called that because it’s got a shit ton of people. If it’s got the size of Taiwan, even with all the economic growth, no one would give a flying fuck about it.
The people who grew up poor as kids but later became middle class or better in China (several of whom I personally know) do give a flying fuck about that and are thankful for having better ‘opportunities’ than their parents.
Honestly? Opportunities are what you make of it. Since these opportunities are economic in nature, some economic thinking is required to discern whether a place has opportunities or not. As an actual economist and since Economics studies behaviour, it is required to actually do some research about a country.
The magical Garden-Of-Eden Land of Opportunities™ doesn’t exist. Every country has their own opportunities that are meant for certain people. When you work, you are renting yourself out. You have a price and the market (largely) determines that price. As an example to a forum whose members contain a significant amount of English Teachers, yes, with the low birthrate, demand will continue to fall and your price will fall too.
A place like India isn’t a Land of Opportunities™ because they have lots of people. There are opportunities because demand is growing all around and will reward those who are there to satisfy their needs first. Taiwan has opportunities, find what the populace demands, satisfy them and you will be rewarded. My plans are beginning to bear their very first fruits here in Taiwan and I’m excited for the future. People like Dream Lucid offer very ill-thought out advice advising everyone to leave and abandon Taiwan indiscriminately with arguments that I believe hold very little water. People seem to think that they can simply pack up and go somewhere else because the grass is greener there and that they are entitled to a job while improving nothing of themselves.
I’ve said this before. If you want to make money, be a hero! If Taiwan isn’t for you, that’s fine! We are all skilled and all of us have skills in demand somewhere. Make an informed decision, do your homework. The losers in the markets are the ones who put their fingers in their ears screaming LALALA while ignoring the changing pace of the world, and then express their complete and utter surprise when being laid off left and right while fighting to keep no-longer-demanded skills/prices or continue to whine while receiving low prices but unwilling to actually do something to increase their competitiveness.
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2004/09/20/focus3.html
Happens in Taiwan, too. Especially with so many family-run SMEs.
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2008 was the year Taiwan grew into a funk.
Korea passed up Taiwan in nominal GDP per capita.
Korea passed up Taiwan in American patents.
Taiwan hasn’t recovered for over a decade.
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That’s somewhat similar to my line of thinking, but others will argue when adjusted for PPP, GDP per capita in Taiwan is still ahead of South Korea.
You & your well thought out replies, not just pissing against the wind and/or trying to rile up others! 
Although I disagree with the statement that “we are all skilled”. Some obviously more than others.
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If you look at indicators of development, it’s mixed. Taiwan had more top hospitals, Korea has higher rates of car ownership.
Not sure car ownership is a good indicator of level of development, perhaps even the opposite.
If you got good public infrastructure you don’t need so many cars
My thoughts on why Taiwan perhaps hasn’t been keeping up with Korea and other economies in Asia is at least partly that China has been blocking it from entering FTAs
Considering Taiwan’s political situation, don’t think they have been doing too bad.
Besides, there is more to life than gdp.
I would choose hk any day of the week instead of sg, despite sg perhaps having more opportunities due to the (still) better quality of life and liberties in hk
Hk vs Taiwan is a tough one though, I make far more in Taiwan than in hk( when considering living expenses) but I kind of like hk better. So so, I probably would still go with tw as my life situation looks now
I agree. I think by far the biggest factor is that Taiwan is being blocked from signing FTAs with large entities such as the EU and being isolated diplomatically.
It just cannot be a Singapore or Hong Kong in this political environment .
But qualitative factors matter too
For instance motor scooters everywhere, pollution and noise, crappy pavements , ugly arsed buildings make it not very attractive for professionals to move to or invest in sometimes. Doesn’t help anyway. In some ways Taiwan really doesn’t help itself. It has improved a lot…But a lot more needs to be done.
Also most of the money going into property and the aging population…loses dynamism.
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FTAs are a big factor.
As close as US and Taiwan are right now, no progress has been done on trade.
Korea has gotten a temporary exemption to steel and aluminum tariffs, Taiwan hasn’t.
The office of China/Taiwan/HK in the International Trade Administration spends a very small percentage of its time on Taiwan.
And the low salaries have compounded the problem, as no one can afford to have kids, and Taiwan’s managers are the oldest and consequently the most stubborn in the region.
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Now that we’ve banned food imports from Fukushima, it’s hard to join the TPP11. This pisses me off.
Just accept that Taiwan has never been and will never be a land of opportunities. It’s not that hard to swallow. There are only a few countries that can be called that.
Idk why you keep buying this nonsense. Those top hospital rankings look like total hack.
Who wants to be a HK in this day and age? Even Singapore is debatable. Australia is way better.
The notion that FTAs would just solve your economic problems is extremely linear and simplistic view. They won’t, and if the deal sucks, it could potentially be disastrous, especially when the other side outranks you in capacity and size by multifolds. The EU is hands down the largest economic free trade zone in the world, and how well has the EU economy been performing beyond Germany? Taiwan has always run one of the largest surpluses in the world, how has that benefited the economy?
I’m not going to defend basic economic principles here. Just crack open an economics textbook.
The hospital rankings were done by Spain’s largest public research council.
http://hospitals.webometrics.info/en/Methodology