Taiwan isn’t that wealthy it’s just got low taxes and relatively
Low housing costs and medical costs which are often shared between families.
Most people are getting by with a little bit of savings that’s about it I guess. The average earnings are something like 1000 used a month across the country.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=TLGxclwAKDo&feature=share
This thread had more details.
Average pay 37k/mth so median must be a bit lower. Taiwan is a tough place to raise and afford kids, most families have to pay 17k a month for each kid in kindergarten for example. You don’t get much help so that’s why the the number of kids is plummeting.
theres massive income gaps in Taiwan now, civil servants can retire on 70k a month and regular workers retire on next to nothing. That’s why you see all those hiking shops
Looking for the silver dollar but then you still see old people out scrounging for recycling material.
There’s loads of people in Taipei who are asset rich and income poor, you see them living in apartments worth 700,000
Usd and eating 100 ntd bian dangs for dinner.
Taipei also has a lot of wealthy folk.
But outside of Taipei and Hsinchu it can get poor pretty quick
.
Basically you can’t say there are big issues facing Taiwan as a single entity because it’s full of disparate interest groups. There’s a group that is happy to have pollution because they can make money from
Industry. There’s a group happy to have high pensions for themselves. There’s a group that is happy to have high house prices.
The oldies down want to pay more tax to contribute to better education. The stock holders done want to pay capital gains tax. Taipei city gets more government revenue than New Taipei City. The poorest cities and counties get the least
Government revenue allocated to them. Then there are groups that are not happy. The people in Taipei are happy together to get cheap electricity from down south. Half the people in Taichung want to expand the industrial zone, and the other half hate it. Hotel
Owners and tour operators make money of the Chinese tourists, and other people resent the Chinese influence.
They don’t have anything in common. They don’t give a shit about each other!