Seems to be growing from when?
If American traffic comes to Taiwan, Taipei would be a multi story car park, and rest of Taiwan would be 24 hour traffic jam. American style commuting is not sustainable from a cost of living perspective, or for the planet. They should tax the bejesus out of cars here.
Uber is cheap here anyways.
Besides all immigrants face hardship, itās just how it is. American history is full of immigrants facing various hardship, from discrimination to not being able to speak the language for first generation immigrants.
Maybe they should interview an OFW. But they wonāt because theyāre āsavagesā.
2 Likes
I think the only thing he is completely wrong about is vehicles. This is a yesteryear thinking. Taiwan should much rather increase vehicle taxes - pollution and traffic jam are horrendous already - the less people owning vehicles - the more they will use public transport - making it better for everyone.
Much rather make sure to have a proper short time rental program - right now those rentals are fine for 1-5 hours, say 10 hours - but it is tedious to get a car for going to holidays for 3 days. That should be only a transitory thing however - as in the long run remote destinations should be covered by public transport too.
Scooters - especially electric are actually kind of a solution - if those people were all driving cars hell would break loose. And yeah proper fines for all those people speeding and super loud engines (not only bikes, quite often (wannabe) sports cars that sound like motorcycles too).
But yes Taiwan like quite a few other countries is struggling in becoming attractive to foreigners - at least high potential ones. Actually most countries having programs to get in foreigners are struggling. Itās a common theme - the more they try, the worse usually it is.
I know for sure the living quality for me here is not up par with central or northern Europe. I would also prefer Canada or New Zealand - somehow attractive countries like Switzerland donāt have any incentives - and rather make it hard for getting in.
Honestly from about a year before Dog Ma became President. Tsai Ing Wen has tried to change things but thereās been a lot of pushback. Thatās why theyāve ended up with this gold card program and trying to entice ABTs back to Taiwan. The last few weeks Iāve had quite a few run ins with disagreeable Taiwanese. All of which came into my space to create trouble.
Donāt get me wrong, the vast majority of Taiwanese are great people. It just seems theyāre confused about their identity and definitely worried about what China is planning on doing. Personally I find Taiwan a much easier place to get around now compared to 20 years ago. A large part of that is having gotten used to the Taiwanese way of doing things. Like bus drivers deciding itās lunchtime so everyone needs to get off the bus. Or taxi drivers trying to go the long way only for me to yell at them jiou tsuan.
And the healthcare system really canāt be beat. If people could live here and work just to access the healthcare system theyād be dumbstruck with how cheap it is and how easy and quick to see exactly who they need to see.
1 Like
What I was stunned by though was the engine tax. In the U.S., registering a vehicle typically costs about $50 a year. In my case, I am paying 75 times that.
What the hell is an āengine taxā? I sold my SUV in 2015 because I got tired of not being able to find parking so maybe things have changed since then.
In Japan I pay a hefty yearly road tax and about $2,000 US every two years for car registration so it is an expensive place to own a vehicle but I donāt recall registration in Taiwan being expensive.
I know two gold card owners. They both work in the medical field and first came to Taiwan on student scholarships for graduate study. One is from Pakistan, one is from Vietnam, two countries which are at lower levels of development compared to Taiwan. What they found here was the opportunity to realize their professional ambitions in a way which could not be done at home.
Of course, your post rather betrays your assumption that such professionals arriving in Taiwan are moving downwards, like the American example in the article, but the fact is there are outstanding professionals in all those countries less prosperous/less secure than Taiwan, for whom the life here is a considerable step up from where they have come from.
10 Likes
Iād even argue that Mexicans coming to Taiwan would be moving upā¦ instead of trying to sneak across the border to the US where they get discriminated against, gets rounded up by ICE, and all thatā¦
2 Likes
For ER treatment and the management of chronic disease, the Taiwan healthcare system is indeed excellent, but your view will surely change if you are ever in need of surgery, at which point the Taiwan system is hazardous to life and limb. This risk extends to locals too, who are well aware of how unscrupulous surgeons will recommend unnecessary surgeries or insist that a disease or injury requires a special procedure which is not covered by oneās national health insurance. In such situations, where all those who would be capable of providing a second opinion are just as financially self-interested, it becomes impossible to determine the best course.
In my own experience, a surgeon changed the pain medication I was on for a glucose drip in a deliberate attempt to soften me up to consenting to surgery. He had the nurses focus on bombarding my wife with hundreds of calls and LINE messages, pressuring her to sign for the surgery, rather than care for me. As a result, the fact I was frequently vomiting did not get properly communicated, and I was loaded into an MRI scanner, despite my protests, and only by repeatedly activating the emergency stop did someone who could speak English attend me and establish what the problem was. The entire experience was a week-long nightmare. (Had similar issues re kidney stones treatment, but will spare you all the details.)
The engine tax is the one where youāre charged more depending on the cc rate of the engine. To simplify it a 1.3L engine is 1300cc (approximately) and the engine tax is what is applied for the level that one fits into. 75x$50=$3725 so roughly around a 4000cc engine or 4L so low end V8 or high end V6 if I remember the registration charges from a few years ago. Thatās why you see so many 3L vehicles and not much above that. And way more 1.3-2L vehicles. The smaller the engine size the cheaper the registration.
2 Likes
Yes thatās true but they wonāt even think of that option.
Iām well aware of surgery āchoicesā in Taiwan. Iām also lucky to have a few great doctors that look after me. Other than trying to get me to have lubricant injections for my knees Iām generally ignored. I do need surgery but the doctors that know whatās happening also know Iām dealing with the issues in the best way possible to delay surgery for as long as possible.
There are many Central Americans (Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua (until recently)) who do see things that way, but thatās because Taiwan has strong links with them in terms of providing generous scholarships to study here.
1 Like
Most donāt have the luxury of doctors they can trust, so my point stands.
The day they post a story of an actual immgrant who really have to make efforts here like a migrant worker , then i probably might read such stories. till then this article just seems like lot of whining to me. Got gold card and the person thinks he knows the struggle of taiwan? Give me a break.
5 Likes
Well, itās also harder. They canāt just come over illegally whereas the US shares a land border which is infinitely harder to protect. Theyād have to get a visa first then attempt to overstayā¦ not to mention coming up with the funds for a flight, which in a country where the per capita GDP is about 8000 dollars, might be a bit hard.
Thatās because most people donāt understand most of what a doctor says and believes a doctor should know everything about what they are seeing them for. This isnāt unique to Taiwan. Only when people understand that doctors only know what they have learned and experienced will those people be more inquisitive about what theyāre being treated for and what alternatives exist.
3 Likes
Agreed re the dude in this article, but this man absolutely deserved his gold card, an outstanding person in so many ways and the hardest-working, most dedicated person Iāve ever met.
2 Likes
Mine was 2 liter. My wife handled yearly registration and when we bought the two vehicles we owned over the years never said anything to me about hefty annual registration fees so itās news to me.
What really sucked about owning a vehicle though was having to pay $30,000 US for a parking space in our building.
1 Like
Your generalizations are just that, generalizations.
You have a good day. Or night.