As of now, any country looking to dominate the digital future has to buy these superfast, ultrathin chips from either Taiwan or South Korea. And Taiwan has the edge in both technology and market power. It is a small island of just 24 million people, but it is at the center of the battle for global technological supremacy.
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This opinion piece is so masturbatory I can’t even.
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Typical junk journalism.
Taiwan may be a small country, but it’s a very large island.
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I mean international media is saying nice things about your country rather than ignoring it.
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The way I see things is Taiwan is in a similar position to the Middle East and Australia. We are at the beginning of a hardware and software technology boom. I’ve heard it called the next industrial revolution.
So, my takeaway is that we all are in place to take advantage of this. We just need to find out specialisation and profit. 
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Buy stocks
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Author works for Morgan Stanley and he won’t give any advice!
I’d guess he’s long either TSMC or Taiex on his personal account.
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Technically I’m very well placed to take advantage of this, my company is all 5G smart home WiFi 6 type ODM.
I wonder if I will actually benefit though? Salary negotiation imminent.
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The thread title is a bit misleading. This is an opinion piece in the NY Times written by an investment banker.
He wasted a lot of words. He could have just written “Taiwan is TSMC and TSMC is Taiwan.”
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Nobody knows who TSMC is, because people don’t go to the store and buy TSMC.
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Unless you’re a highly experienced and specialized engineer or a Western C-level executive recruited to come to Taiwan, the real money here is in starting your own business. Rank-and-file workers are vastly underpaid in Taiwan. Salaries here could double and most people would still be better off financially in another country.
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That’s funny considering most people here are actually financially better off than people in other countries.
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Between the hyperbole of this author and being ignored, I choose being ignored.
Must be why Taiwan tops brain drain rankings and a majority of workers want to work abroad.
Most of the young(ish) people I’ve met here who are in good shape financially are in that position because they have parents who owned a successful business and/or own property, not because they have jobs that pay high wages. Taiwanese, like many Asians, do seem to be better savers in general, but that doesn’t mean the quality of life is very high. Young people here save so that they can buy shoeboxes in dilapidated buildings for princely sums that exceed the average cost of a house in much of the US.
People come up with all sorts of excuses (like claiming that the cost of living here is lower when ignoring the ridiculous property prices), but if you’re educated and work in a field like technology, you’re almost certainly way better off if you can find a job in China or a Western country.
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Are you trying to win the hyperbolic statement of the year?
Taiwan’s living costs ARE low. Everyone knows Taiwan suppresses its currency value. Like @Whatevah said, if the government really let it float, the exchange rate would be about 20 NT/1 USD.
Property prices are only one component of living cost. You keep talking about it like it’s the whole thing.
You keep pounding on the brain drain thing. It’s real, but it’s a non-issue. There are 31,000 Taiwanese studying in the USA right now, gaining experience and contacts. All that brainpower is germinating, and once salaries rise even just modestly, they’re going to go home and lead another tech boom. Like they did in the 80s and early 90s.
Salaries in Taiwan don’t have to be as high as they are abroad, because hometown discount for the talented people.
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Which brain drain rankings did Taiwan top and according to whom do the majority of workers want to work abroad?
I am really tired of you comparing houses in America, one of the largest countries in the world, with houses in Taiwan, one of the smallest countries in the world.
Other than America which Western country have you even worked in? 
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Simple population density.
Taiwan: 673/km^2
USA: 36/km^2
More people per land, more demand less supply, higher price. Not ultra complicated.
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I know, I know. Cheap beef noodles makes up for the fact that buying a ping in a crapper Taipei building will set you back $750,000 - $1 million NT.
And? The currency manipulation is designed to benefit exports. Companies make more money, but that doesn’t help locals if companies don’t transfer more of their profits to employees.
Even accounting for the strong TWD, import goods like brand clothing, alcohol, etc. still routinely cost more here than they do in the US.
Even the Taiwanese government isn’t this naive. You can bury your head in the sand, but the reality is that Taiwanese know what’s up.
That most of them hope to leverage to get a good job at an American company.
I’m sorry, but you’re living in the past. The 80s and early 90s were 30+ years ago. The world has changed. Look at the vast wealth that has been created in Silicon Valley, China, etc. in just the past decade.
You can keep waiting while those who can see the situation for what it is cash in. This “once salaries rise even just modestly Taiwan’s star will rise again” dream you have is totally disconnected from the reality that in the US, talented STEM workers are well paid and in places like Silicon Valley, can routinely make in a year what their Taiwanese peers might make in 10.
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I’m part of the Taiwanese-American community. Almost all my dad’s friends are engineers. You have no idea what you’re talking about. Most of those who grew up in Taiwan want to return home to be close to family, even if they’ll make significantly less.
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