Yeah but you have to take anything in the Taipei Times with a [strike]grain[/strike] pound of salt. This is the paper that literally had the headline “Ma makes people miserable: DPP.” They relish any opportunity to criticize the administration.
That being said, things were significantly cheaper when I got her for the first time in 2006. As I recall, I never spent more than 100 on a meal unless I wanted something fancy. McDonald’s was a luxury. These days you can get a cheeseburger meal for less than a bowl of niuroumian.
True, TT is not a reliable source, but the prices at the wet market are outrageous… for non typhoon season. And I have been here longer, and this is the first time I have noticed a steady rise in costs. Visible as in price changes. Not only TT, but most TV news are on this bandwagon, pointing out rising costs -this store has not raised its prices in 30 years, but from next week, paisei, 5 nts more! this store charges extra for another bowl of rice! that store charges people for adding pepper to an egg! That kind of thing. *
Note: Icon is being half serious/half in jest. Remember Icon is a dramatic Latina. Things are getting more expensive, but the press does pimp it up.
In all of honesty a lot of these price hikes are outside of this country’s control. It’s happening all over the world and as usual third world countries where the average people spends over 80% of their income on basic necessity are hit the hardest. It’s not fair to blame the administration on things outside of their control.
We can’t blame them for rising costs (unless you’re of the lot that supports all kinds of unsustainable subsidies), but we can blame them for policies that encourage housing prices to continue to skyrocket and discourage salaries from rising.
Well buying houses isn’t exactly a necessity. You can rent if that is what floats your boat, and rent prices do not match up to the cost of housing here. A 30 million NT concrete box can be rented for maybe 30,000nt a month if that.
Taiwan was very unusual in the 2000s with hardly any perceivable inflation.
It’s only in the last couple of years that inflation has really started to affect us. Now 130-150 is a common price in many restaurants.
I purchased a beef rice in 7-11 yesterday, looked good until I opened it and found at least half of it was air! Even the Taiwanese I was with commented on it immediately.
In Taiwan they will cut costs anyway they can before raising prices…that is indeed the most worrying thing.
We can’t blame them for rising costs (unless you’re of the lot that supports all kinds of unsustainable subsidies), but we can blame them for policies that encourage housing prices to continue to skyrocket and discourage salaries from rising.[/quote]
They also cut taxes on businesses and wealth asset holders but didn’t cut taxes for minimum wage workers or people on salaries.
There’s truth that property isn’t a necessity (I have no plans to own property, ever, though that could change), but as I mentioned somewhere else things have been a bit of a headache trying to get a huji situation sorted out without owning property. So basically the government doesn’t consider housing a necessity, but they still expect you to have it to get anything done.
We can’t blame them for rising costs (unless you’re of the lot that supports all kinds of unsustainable subsidies), but we can blame them for policies that encourage housing prices to continue to skyrocket and discourage salaries from rising.[/quote]
They also cut taxes on businesses and wealth asset holders but didn’t cut taxes for minimum wage workers or people on salaries.
Says it all really.[/quote]
Taxes on salaries were cut. There was a drop from 13% to 12% for mid-level wage earners a couple of years ago. This year, some bigger income tax exemptions and deductions kick in.
You can get a huji on a rented house, legally all that is needed is a rental contract. However since many landlords are avoiding tax in some way it is very wise to consult with your landlord before registering your rented house as a huji or business. At least give them a chance to manipulate things a bit in their favor (without affecting you of course). However because a lot of landlord is avoiding taxes, sometimes they might just say that you can do whatever you want but pass the costs onto you.
In my case the landlord made a “public” lease contract with a lower rent amount…
Taiwan seems pretty strong when it comes to property rights (eminent domain not withstanding). I’ve been in some countries where renting houses were difficult (credit checks, etc., almost as hard as getting a job) because those countries have strong tenant rights. The end result is landlords won’t rent to anyone unless the prospective tenant can prove that they are able to pay rent.
We can’t blame them for rising costs (unless you’re of the lot that supports all kinds of unsustainable subsidies), but we can blame them for policies that encourage housing prices to continue to skyrocket and discourage salaries from rising.[/quote]
They also cut taxes on businesses and wealth asset holders but didn’t cut taxes for minimum wage workers or people on salaries.
Says it all really.[/quote]
Taxes on salaries were cut. There was a drop from 13% to 12% for mid-level wage earners a couple of years ago. This year, some bigger income tax exemptions and deductions kick in.
It’s not much, but better than nothing.[/quote]
Yeah but they added it on to the NIH instead (I appreciate everybody got that increases including the alternative income tax folks).
The slashing of inheritance and gift taxes was crazy though. They gutted capital gains on stocks an dividends. Banks and finance companies here have also been paying a special low tax rate of 10% or something for the last 10 years.
[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]You can get a huji on a rented house, legally all that is needed is a rental contract. However since many landlords are avoiding tax in some way it is very wise to consult with your landlord before registering your rented house as a huji or business. At least give them a chance to manipulate things a bit in their favor (without affecting you of course). However because a lot of landlord is avoiding taxes, sometimes they might just say that you can do whatever you want but pass the costs onto you.
In my case the landlord made a “public” lease contract with a lower rent amount…
Taiwan seems pretty strong when it comes to property rights (eminent domain not withstanding). I’ve been in some countries where renting houses were difficult (credit checks, etc., almost as hard as getting a job) because those countries have strong tenant rights. The end result is landlords won’t rent to anyone unless the prospective tenant can prove that they are able to pay rent.[/quote]
I remember credit checks back home. What a pain. My situation is a good deal more complicated then that, but I’d rather not post about it publicly here. Yes, we can use my rental unit’s address, but it would be quite a bit more mafan for a lot of reasons, the first being that I’ve never met the landlord/landlady (I don’t even know his or her gender).
Did you rent the house through an agent? I try to avoid agents because they charge unnecessary fees, and landlords prefer renting without agents for that reason (some rent available ads even says no agents)