That’s why she moved there maybe ?
I know people in California and it’s really expensive. So I guess it’s the examples we pick really.
But in Taiwan you’ll never really get better than a suburban home deal than the US.
No they’ve been living in Texas for many years now. There are places in California where you can still buy houses for $300-$500k. Sacramento area for example.
Taiwan is expensive compared to the quality of life. And just plain expensive in some areas like buying a house…
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Yes but there’s a reason so many Taiwanese (fr example ) move to Houston. Cheaper cost of living and jobs.
It would be more apt to compare Houston to Kaohsiung. No comparisons work very well though.
How so? Kaohsiung is not in the same class of city as Houston…
It basically is if you think about it.
Taipei is the NYC, Kaohsiung is the refinery city and city for the hinterland and industry.
People in Taiwan move to Kaohsiung cos it’s cheap sometimes .
But of course you will not get a cheap independent lot suburban home anywhere in Taiwan… I know…I have looked.
Well my sister is in that area and I’ve spent time there. Houston qualitatively is leagues above Kaohsiung in quality of life. And I’d bet quantitatively too…
Kaohsiung is a dump IMO…
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It wins most improved dump status over the last 20 years .
It’s got some good spots but the air quality is baddddd.
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That’s the most ridiculous thing ever. Housing is expensive because it’s the most densely populated country in the world. Everything else is dirt cheap (except maybe cheese and some other overpriced western novelties, but you don’t have to buy good cheese).
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I’ve saved a lot of money in Taiwan (eventually ). I save at LEAST 30% more of my pay check per month between taxes and expenses compared to my home country , it’s why I still live here. My rent is a a very small portion of my pay. I couldn’t be bothered buying a house. I live in a huge 50 plus ping apartment .
Plus I didn’t get furloughed the whole year like my friends.
But you need to make enough to save enough in the first place.
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Anyway…different strokes for different folks. Some people prefer good cheese to terrible pollution.
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Monaco doesn’t really count does it ?
Taiwan as a nation really is super super densely populated when we consider everybody lives on the West coast strip. It’s basically one mega city up and down.
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Yeah violent crime in the US is a big issue. But…
400 people were murdered in Houston last year. In the 1990s it was 50% higher. We’re still talking about less than 1000 people a year.
Most of these murders are in bad neighborhoods and are related to gangs and drugs. You can drastically reduce your risk by staying out of bad neighborhoods and not being involved with gangs/drugs. It’s in your control…
In Kaohsiung you have very little ability to control your exposure to highly toxic pollution that will erode your health without you even noticing in most cases…
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Hardly superficial.
Many new ”affordable” housing going up the past 5 years is known for shoddy workmanship. Sewage leaking through walls, foundations and structural support walls cracking significantly, etc. All have made the headlines.
These things are like throwing your money in the trash. The home depreciates, people end up paying more to fix things, often not being able to completely fix them at all. Eventually taking a financial loss and moving out.
Traffic is not as bad as it used to be, at least IMHO.
Third-world aspects that I find hard to digest, even though I overall love this island, are:
- Air pollution. I live in Kaohsiung and a bike ride across Xiaogang or Renwu is an experience that I would not recommend.
- Water pollution. Those holes in the factories’ walls leading to the water channels below. Those grey plastic pipes that pump foamy stuff directly into the sea (Ziguan, Qieding, just to mention two “beaches”). No wonder Taiwan has plenty of underground water, but none of it can actually be used.
- Sewage systems that you don’t know (or don’t wanna know) where they end up into. And fly-friendly plastic bins in the toilets overloaded with used tissue that cannot be flushed away together with poop.
- Kuomintang-era electric wires and rusted control units that challenge the laws of physics.
- PAPERWORK
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You pretty much nailed it.
The sorry sorry attitude to water , air, soil and noise pollution.
Taiwan is a VERY rich country with government, business prople and citizens often maintaining a mindset of a developing country .
Taiwan actually has amongst the highest concentration of wealth in the whole world for a country of its size. It has the most millionaires per head and the most Virgin Island bank account holders per head. Something like that anyway. It is the 15th largest exporter in the world and it’s a tiny country.
There’s no financial reason that any of the cities still look like complete shit and that there are open sewers here still.
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Not even close…
But yeah…Taiwan is rich enough to be more comprehensively developed than it is.
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I’m pretty sure that list is rubbish.
For instance there’s no way in hell Ireland or France has more millionaires per head than Taiwan.
That list is from Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Databook. If you have a different reputable cite showing that Taiwan has the highest % of millionaires for its population in the world post it…
This.
There are other metrics I could dig up.
For instance number of SMEs here.
Property and land value
Low taxes and rampant tax evasion.