Not much.
I’ve felt (perhaps wrongly) that the introduction of the HSR system took some cars off the highways.
In the capital (less so in Xinbei) the proliferation of youbike has also changed habits, especially among the young,
Perhaps it’s not enough, but some glimmers of change may be there, in some places, not all, if you squint hard enough. : D
Guy
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The following things make Taiwan resemble third world;
-
Undrinkable tap water.
If you cant drink directly from the tap, then its third world. Anybody in a western country will say the same thing. -
Lack of sewage treatment.
Only about 36% of Taiwan is connected to a sewage treatment plant, the rest is dumped into the gutters on the street which then goes into the rivers. This article shows the details for each region. These numbers will need to be atleast 95% to be first worldish.
https://www.cpami.gov.tw/international-focus/sewer-engineering/10808-THE-SEWAGE-TREATMENT-RATE.html
- Poor food safety.
Food adulteration and tampering is rife here. Banned chemicles are used in lots of foods, illegal pesticides and dyes, arsenjc poisoning, the list goes on. This article (chinese only) will show all the scandals that have happened.
-
Poor sanitation.
Although streets are generally clean from rubbish, hygiene is non existant. People wash dishes and utensils in cold water only and if your lucky theyvwill atleast use soap whilst doing so. Restaurants are poor in sanitation (take notice how some of them wash their dishes and equipment in the gutter with a hose… not very first worldish behaviour). Wet markets with open air meat hanging around is a minor issue, ever since the ccpvirus hit it will be interesting to see if they stop the wet markets here, my guess is not. -
Corruption.
Bribery is an issue. Whether it be from little things to big things that affect public health, it happens some times. Here is a news report from Linkou district, to my knowledge that area had a proper sewage treatment plant connection, but this housing complex payed bribes to pollute the river instead, how nice of them.
I could go on forever about other things but these are the main ones. Taiwan has come along way but still had along way to go before it can be properly considered first world. My guess is maybe around 2030 we will start to notice some improvements compared to what is there right now.
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Except that’s not how development is measured. Many of these factors contribute, directly or indirectly, but are not causes of development or lack thereof.
Almost all of Taiwan has access to clean and safe drinking water. Clean and safe drinking water is also created through an affordable filtration system.
Lack of sewage treatment is not a good thing, however, it doesn’t affect Taiwan’s standard of living in a significant way.
Adulteration of food is rife in a lot of other developed countries. It’s not unique to Taiwan in the developed world.
Again, numerous examples of restaurants not providing good sanitation are found throughout the developed world. Every American knows about the infamous highway-side gas station washroom. Most public washrooms are unbelievably filthy in developed countries.
Corruption is not as big a problem as one would think here. It is certainly not as good as a place like Canada, Taiwan’s corruption levels compare with developed countries like France and the United States. Taiwan beats Portugual, South Korea, The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Malta, Italy(hard to say this one) and more. Taiwan is 28th in the world if you don’t count draws which is a very good ranking, lower is better. If draws or ties are counted, Taiwan would be 17.
Development is calculated by objective standards like life expectancy, literacy and income by GNI.
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yes, but no average person in the world will see it like that especially if they are from aus, nz, west europe, sigapore or japan for example. Those countries people will expect all the points that i listed to not be there, and will be virtually impossible trying to convince them that those issues can exist yet the country can still be first world.
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That’s why development is supposed to be objective. If one considers their own country to be the gold standard, then anything different is going to look backwards, even if that country is doing an objectively better job.
Take for example, transport. People are amazed that you can simply choose what kind of transport you like in Taiwan and it’s all easy. It’s easy to take public transport and it’s easy to buy a car.
In the US, Canada and Australia, car usage is mandatory. If you are dirt poor and don’t have a car, you’re not going to be digging yourself out of your situation very quickly. Access to safe and affordable transport is a driver for an increased standard of living. Taiwan’s transport is excellent. The roads are paved, the trains are on time and clean. etc… Transport is one of the single biggest drivers of personal income growth.
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yes i guess, tbh japan, aswell as iceland, switzerland and norway are the gold standard and if all countries did what they did then there would be no issues at all.
I’m not disagreeing with you that these aren’t problems that need to be solved. They are. But it irks me that Taiwan can out-compete at least one developed country on every metric and yet still be called a ‘third world’ or ‘developing’ country.
Give me any metric and I’ll tell you which recognised developed nation or nations it beats.
And most of the problems that we have in Taiwan have not impaired the ability for residents here to do global rich people’s things like:
Eat meat
take hot showers
buy unnecessary luxury items with disposable income
consume media and entertainment
travel
and other things we take for granted.
We just spilled 150000 litres of oil in our Canadian wilderness.
This is much worse than natural humanure going into the river.
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Yes taiwan can out compete alot of nations. But having been to taiwan before, when people asked me what its like and i mentioned those issues which are very visible, they then all said third world. I even went round asking strangers in tge streets if they would call a country with those issues developed, not a single person said so.
The general western public wont see it any other way, thats just how it is.
well tbh i wouldnt really call canada that developed, not as developed as aus, nz anyway
I live in Taiwan. You showed them a superficial photo that doesn’t tell the full story.
You’re talking about a public that thinks it’s perfectly fine to be stuck in traffic.
A public that thinks it’s perfectly fine to have good neighbourhoods and bad neighbourhoods.
And BTW, the differences between Canadian living and Australian living are minimal.
If you limit yourself to your own country, everywhere else is going to appear backwater.
i showed the good and the bad. You cant blame people for thinking third world when they have grown up without those issues, especially when they are taught that places like india and africa have those issues and they are third world places, so to see any country with these problems they will think third world because its all they know.
Just like mainland chinese thinking ccp is great, they are bought up that way and impossible to know any different.
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I can understand that point.
But I also use numbers to show the points as well.
im not saying your wrong at all, numbers do help but most people will never think that way. thats the problem.
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I usually just say the Taiwanese live longer than Americans. That’s usually the benchmark for my western friends.
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because those americans are too busy at mcdonalds, lol.
This article and graph are misleading in a way. It often talks about nominal GDP per capita, but completely ignores the costs situation in Taiwan. This paints a very bleak picture of Taiwan cause nominal talks about the absolute dollar value but ignores what you can actually buy in that country. Purchasing Power Parity is much more accurate and shows that Taiwanese residents have a higher purchasing power for less money, meaning things are cheaper here. A basket of goods cost less here and Taiwan’s GDP per capita when adjusted to be the same as USA’s purchasing power puts it squarely at the 13th highest place in the world by the IMF.
This is ahead of most of the named countries that are ‘doing so well’ while Taiwan ‘suffers’.
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Except Taiwan pollutes many of its rivers with industrial effluent every single day. Taiwan’s river quality record and management of rivers is appaling (not just taling about pollution but how they concrete many rivers unnecessarily and also gravel extraction and water extraction ). Its getting better here and there, buts it’s from a really low base. Soil management has also been very poor.and that’s a whole other subject . In the area of environmental protection they have largely failed. It’s a tough challenge given they are heavily industrialised and dense population but mostly it’s been a big fail.
Even now the destruction continues with mega projects. Next they are placing hundreds and thousands of wind power turbines into the Taiwan strait with very little care to the ocean environment . Again it’s a difficult choice but one that seems to have been made favouring development over environment. It may be right to say that Taiwan is a highly developed country with a poor environmental record . Every year electricity demand goes up, and to power that demand is not a harmless endeavour . I have personally seen how the datan powerplant has ruined what used to be a popular and fairly pristine spot on Miaoli’s coastline. It continues to expand year by year. Nobody ever seems to say, hold on a second maybe we should have less energy and water hungry factories.
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On that note: what would you guys say are the most pristine spots in Taiwan? Ideally I’d love to be next to some body of water, clean and quiet with noone around for miles.
The traffic is what is definately third world here in Taiwan. Where I live and work the traffic volume is very bad, and what’s even worse is that there is not enough bus service in parts of the neighborhood that will help to reduce the traffic.
There is a train station nearby where my workplace is, but the trains are local trains only.
The crowding of these trains may seem like a third world thing, but at least the
trains are clean, and you won’t see any sort of safety hazard practices like what you
would see in India.
Yes, the traffic is third world but that depends on where you are in certain rural
communities. The roads on the other hand are of first world quality.