From the Economist
[quote]According to surveys, Americans think a human life is worth $7m. The Japanese say it is worth $10m. How much do the Taiwanese surveyed think a life is worth?
The answer was $600,000. God, let’s hope they weren’t talking about NT.
600 000 US$ is close to 20 000 000NT$, isn’t it?
The manufacturers of that bottle of wine Tiger Man has (thread about Whack Things In Taiwan - don’t know how to link here, sorry) will only pay out 3 000 000NT$ should anything happen to you when you drink it.
If you injure someone in an automobile accident and are at fault, you must pay all of the victim’s medical bills. However, if you kill someone in an accident, you have to pay one lump sum. There have been several infamous cases in Taiwan of truck drivers backing up to hit the victim again to make sure they die - because a dead body is cheaper to pay for than a living victim’s medical bills. So…exactly how much is that lump sum, under Taiwanese law?
[quote]So…exactly how much is that lump sum, under Taiwanese law?
[/quote]
About 10 years ago, a young, spoiled woman from a very wealthy and influential family, who used to be a colleague of mine, ran over and killed an elderly woman who was riding a bicycle. She had to pay less than one million NT$ to the woman’s family.
She must have gotten a senior citizens’ discount.
Shame on me!
[quote=“sandman”][quote]So…exactly how much is that lump sum, under Taiwanese law?
[/quote]
About 10 years ago, a young, spoiled woman from a very wealthy and influential family, who used to be a colleague of mine, ran over and killed an elderly woman who was riding a bicycle. She had to pay less than one million NT$ to the woman’s family.[/quote]
The same thing happened to a Taiwanese colleague of mine whose sister was killed by a drunk driver who happened to also be a police officer. The amount paid was exactly 1 million NT to the woman’s children. I don’t know if this part is true but the colleague said that the police officer was not fired. Instead he received some punishment from the force, a suspension I believe, but was allowed to retain his position. However, this happened several years ago so things may be handled differently if this were to happen today.
You guys are just discussing the quality of Taiwanese justice - not the value of life. If you kill someone, you should be punished, and the family should get some compensation; the punishment should be related to how much to blame you were (unlucky, negligent, crimanally dangerous, murderer), while the compensation should be related to how dependent the family was on him … neither of which really gives you a ‘value of life’ figure.
A better figure would be this:
You can pick up a Vietnamese bride for NT$180,000 - that’s the value of (a Vietnamese) life.
Virgin or non-virgin? 
How much someone who is at fault in a fatal car accident has to pay the victim’s family is irrelevent to the original poster’s survery. I believe the survey asked people how much they felt a human life was worth, and was not a survey of how much different legal systems around the world make people pay for killing a person.
Using the same logic, I could say that the value of a human life in Canada is nothing. My aunt was killed by her doctor (gross negligence), but the doctor didn’t have to pay the family anything.
It was not a survey. The cost of life was determined by how willing workers were to work in hazardess conditions for more money. The Japanese were very unwilling. The Taiwanese, mei guanxi. Hence it was determined that the average Taiwanese does not value his own life much because he will engage in rather risky behavior for little profit. This of course is averaged out over te entire country.
I suppose if they did a survey on how much Taiwanese value children we would get similar results since the majority try to pass off raising them to Filipinos.
I attended a conference recently and heard some government officials in Taiwan give the figure of NT$ 4,000,000 . . . . . . that is the value of a life which they use in negotiating between various parties dealing with accidents and monetary compensation matters.
Why couldn’t it be that Taiwanese do value their lives, but they are gamblers and think nothing bad will happen to them. Taiwan people are famous for gambling and it could explain why they take hazardous work. They are gambling with their lives.
[quote=“Hobart”]
Why couldn’t it be that Taiwanese do value their lives, but they are gamblers and think nothing bad will happen to them. Taiwan people are famous for gambling and it could explain why they take hazardous work. They are gambling with their lives.[/quote]
Then you also got the whole destiny thing… Taiwanese think that when their time is up their time is up… placing yourself in a position of danger does not affect when your number is up… if its going to happen it is going to happen
I’d have to say in the minds of an orginary Taiwanese the answer would be NT$1. Unless of course they are related to the person in some way. It’s obviously just watching the things that go on that life in Taiwan is worth very little.