[quote] Broken laws count so far = at least 20
If you think I’ll fess up to what they are - NO WAY![/quote]
Boss Hogg, Fri 14 February in the ‘How many laws have you broken’ thread.
I’ve contemplated the ‘totally illegal’ route, but there seem to be plenty of ways that you can be at least semi-legal - ie get an ARC from somewhere - and the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs. All it takes is one little screw-up to attract attention at the wrong moment and your wheels, deposit on your apartment, personal relationships, unpaid earnings, freedom to choose your own future, etc. can all be kissed goodbye as you hustle down to the airport. Weigh that against a little bit of tax. I know that I screw up from time to time, and have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t.
Make a fair attempt to be seen to be abiding by laws that are enforced by officials that I have always found to be pretty sympathetic, and your chances of holding on to the benefits of your labour are increased dramatically. Cing YA seems like a smart option.
Hence my interest in starting my own business, as the best way forward. I did this in Germany back in the mid-90s. Had the labour authorities wanted to enforce the law absolutely they could have arrested me. Instead I had them referring people to me either to work under my license or replicate what I had done. Taiwan is a different situation, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest that this principle doesn’t hold true here.
And there is also the issue of self-respect. Why be a fly-by-night backpacker type (not you, Okami, just lots of people like you) when you can be recognised (and paid?!?!) as a professional with a quality service to offer? Me, I will go for the higher status anytime and cut out all those losers in buxibans that want to hire me for some poxy rate.
The whole point of being self-employed is not that you get paid legally-ish by your employer. The point is that YOU are the person being paid directly by the student, and no cunt makes hundreds or thousands of $s per hour out of you. The money goes into your pocket as your fair and legal reward for taking control of, and responsibility for, your own life.
I’ve always lived by this principle until I came here. The last 12 months have been hell because of the ‘serf’-owner relationship mentioned by a few people here, and because I hate to see some tosser lose a lucrative contract for making mistakes that I see, warn against, and am castigated for mentioning. There are plenty of people here slamming their employers, or the industry in general, and in my book the only real solution is to do the job better than them.
In all likelihood a few laws may get bent, but that happens everywhere in the world. Laws are not enforced to the letter at all times anywhere in the world. They may be passed for or by special interest groups but the people enforcing them are human beings like the rest of us, and usually tend to take a pragmatic view of what is reasonable.
The point is to be able to go through life without giving anyone any good reason to prosecute you. All you have to do is show reasonable respect for local standards and not blatantly do anything that forces them to act.
Finally, on a slightly different tack: Germany used to have laws requiring Jews to be clearly identified - and eventually shipped off to special holiday camps. Me, I don’t follow laws that I don’t agree with. Resistance to the law may lead to a premature death. It may also lead to a change in the law or the situation - Witness Magna Carta, the Peasants Revolt, US Independence, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the suffragette movement, Ghandi, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, the UKs poll tax rebellion, and of course the great Kazaa.
In a democracy, which Taiwan claims to have become, every individual has a responsibility to evaluate the laws under which they live. Civil disobedience, publicly or privately, is one way in which politicians are kept (or made) that little bit less dishonest and societies evolve. Blind obedience to the law is an insult to your humanity.
