People in extreme poverty in Taiwan

I wonder how people in a extreme poverty survive in taiwan coz i saw 1 person in mc.donald with a bag and wearing a hat sitting in a table then if he saw someone left a food in the table then when he see that person left then he will get it and eat it the food…so im wondering if taiwan have a foodstamp for poor people?or any charities that can help them or they can eat 3x a day?

I saw an interesting article on this topic recently in the LA Times, I’m sure it’s around here somewhere…

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Taiwan has poverty. But no extreme poverty.

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I’ve seen extreme poverty in Taipei.

Longshan Temple. Then there’s the riverside park near Wanhua where I saw a guy living in a cardboard box and defecating in public.

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You have not been to backwater China then.

And he could easily easily easily use the MRT facilities.

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The riverside park is a long away from the MRT. The guy didn’t have a shirt, and his pants were about to fall apart. Right near where he was sleeping there was a pile of his own feces.

It doesn’t get much more extreme than that.

maybe, you could define extreme poverty.

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It does.

Extreme poverty is defined as making under US$1.90/day 2011 Dollars. Even Taiwan’s poorest do not make it close to that figure. The poverty line in Taipei is $17005/m, making Taiwan’s poorest 3½x richer than China’s third poorest and 9x greater than China’s poorest. We have poverty, but we are a developed country that has eradicated extreme poverty.

An anecdotal snapshot of one guy’s life at one point in time does not a full picture make.

The lowest poverty line of $11648 in Kinmen County is more than 5x China’s poorest.

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You mean almost eliminated.

No. I mean completely unambiguously eradicated.

There is no data that supports even the suggestion that anyone in Taiwan makes less than $1.90 2011 Dollars a day.

If you eat even just once in Taiwan anywhere in the country. That’s already past the threshold for extreme poverty. Even those rice triangles at 711 are beyond the threshold.

Some related articles in Chinese.

Poorest people might not be counted as poor.

Clearly not. I’d bet a lot of the ones living under the bridge make $0 per day, and live of food donations.

Nothing I’ve seen in Taiwan, in terms of homeless, comes close to what I have seen in NYC subways.

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That’s already beyond the $1.90 threshold. Even those food donations cost more than $1.90.

People in China live on less than that. 7 million people.

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And you know this for a fact?

Is there government support for homeless people that guarantees no extreme poverty exists?

Taiwan has welfare.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not fun. It’s just not extreme. They’re still homeless. But Taiwan has welfare and shelters.

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The guy living next to his own feces probably wasn’t aware of it.

I’m saying I’ve seen what was clearly extreme poverty in Taipei. The guy possibly had mental problems, but he was clearly living in a state that was extreme poverty.

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But that’s not defined as Extreme Poverty. It’s extreme for you in a relativistic sense. This is subjective. It is indeed a huge fall from our lives of comfort to that. But we have objective definitions for Extreme Poverty and other levels of poverty. If you have seen what I’ve seen in China with absolutely zero state support, you’ll think that guy in Taipei is rich.

And again. It’s one snapshot of one person at one point in his life. It doesn’t tell the whole story.

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There probably is some state support in Taipei. But a lot of homeless people can’t or aren’t aware how to claim it. I’ve seen that even in wealthy countries.

If there’s even one person in extreme poverty (i.e. less than $1.90 per day) you can’t make the claim that it has been completely eliminated. And I’m sure you cannot guarantee that.