Wow thats a pretty negative outlook GiT My objective is to earn money, live and experience a totally different culture eventually learn another language and explore/travel the region (Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, etc ) Maybe save a wee bit of money as well but i will still have the option of a pension back in Scotland (NHS) if i retire there.
Surely if someone settles here with a taiwanese wife, family etc they would qualify for the Taiwanese pension and such?
I think maybe regarding long term prospects in teaching in Taiwan you are correct but a lot of people are in jobs everywhere which have hardly any career progression, yet they get by and are not scrounging to make ends meet constantly.[/quote]
Fine, add learning Chinese to that list. I have no problem with that. I just know so many people who have blown small fortunes on travel and âexperiencesâ. Theyâre going to be in for a very rude awakening in the future when they donât have any real prospects and when even the government doesnât have the funds to prop them up.
My attitude is not negative at all. Itâs based in reality. We are on the tail end of a particular epoch in history. I was thirteen when the Berlin Wall came down and we thought weâd solved all problems at that point. All pretty much anyone alive today from the West has ever known has been incredible prosperity, punctuated by very brief periods of recession. This is simply not going to be the case in the future and weâre seeing the first unravellings now. This is not a cyclical problem that will go away once the West gets back on track. Itâs structural. You think youâre going to get a pension back in Scotland? Dude, at the rate the U.K. is going, the government is going to be lucky to be able to afford its electricity bill next year. There arenât going to be pensions for anyone my age or younger in a whole lot of Western countries by the time I am of retirement age, or theyâll be incredibly miniscule. The Taiwanese pension is not even worth mentioning (and it would be absolute folly to copy the Western debt-fuelled model in an attempt to expand it, even though it would be popular with many votersâŚfor a while), and I donât even know if I could get it. Iâm not relying on it. I donât think people realise just how bad the finances are of lots of countries. Theyâre really, really dire. I suggest you look at some of what your compatriot Niall Ferguson has talked about regarding projections of debt to GDP ratios of the U.K. and the U.S. Theyâre worse than those of the PIIGS.
I am preparing for a permanent M-shaped society as I expect that the middle class will never really recover in many countries. Maybe that wonât come to pass, but Iâd rather not chance it. I actually think Iâm going to be fine, better than fine even, financially. Iâm very positive about my financial future and the life I will be able to lead. I just donât think everyone else should be. The West of my forties, fifties and sixties is not going to be like the West of my teens and early twenties.
Only if they become a Taiwanese citizen. I believe the standard Taiwanese state pension is currently 3,000NTD a month should anyone choose to take this route.
East Asian countries donât really do âbenefitsâ in the way the west does.
Humanity has existed for thousands of years without the government propping them up, giving pension or social security. It was only recently in the US (since the great depression) that there has been any such welfare.
Surely if someone settles here with a taiwanese wife, family etc they would qualify for the Taiwanese pension and such?
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Only if they become a Taiwanese citizen. I believe the standard Taiwanese state pension is currently 3,000NTD a month should anyone choose to take this route.
East Asian countries donât really do âbenefitsâ in the way the west does.[/quote]
You donât need to be a citizen to get the pension, you need to contribute to the Lao Bao labour insurance scheme though. Some people mentioned you had to take it as a lump-sum, not sure on that part. At the amount the pension currently stands at, 3,000 NTD, itâs not a great deal. Maybe it will increase in future but seems unlikely to increase much due to demographic burden.
People talk about western pensions going belly up and the same is going to be true for the Taiwanese one. Ever since they made it compulsory, unless your workplace already contributed to it, people have simply not being paying into it. My in-laws have constantly told me and my wife how stupid we are for paying into the system when it is not going to be there in the future.
Most people have jobs. Many jobs (maybe even most), such as mine, automatically deduct the money from their pay. Didnât know I could actually it back later. Will get my wife onto investigating this.
You donât need to be a citizen to get the pension, you need to contribute to the Lao Bao labour insurance scheme though. Some people mentioned you had to take it as a lump-sum, not sure on that part. At the amount the pension currently stands at, 3,000 NTD, itâs not a great deal. Maybe it will increase in future but seems unlikely to increase much due to demographic burden.[/quote]
Cheers! I had no idea anyone who contributes could get it. Hardly any money but every little helps.
Bear in mind, those who are very pessimistic about future state pension provision, that old people vote. There will be a lot of old people in the future that politicians will be wooing. The guy who plans to cancels the state pension ainât likely to win any elections. Where the money will come from is going to be interesting, but I doubt that any party will axe state pensions unless thereâs no other choice.
There will be no other choice. These things are unsustainable on their current trajectory. Bear in mind that young people also vote. Once they realise theyâre getting fleeced to support old people, theyâll be very angry.
There will be no other choice. These things are unsustainable on their current trajectory. Bear in mind that young people also vote. Once they realise theyâre getting fleeced to support old people, theyâll be very angry.[/quote]
Theyâll be fewer of them. They will be very angry, though. A lot of them are pretty pissed off right now.
I dunno. I put 6-700 quid a year into the UK national insurance. I may be chucking it into a black hole, but I have a feeling that something will be paid out in 25 years time. Having said that, Greece isnât a promising example if itâs the canary in the coal mine.
Any state pension will only be a bonus to me, anyway, as my personal savings are my primary income source for retirement. However, I donât have a Plan C if there is a worldwide Zimbabwe like financial collapse that wipes out savings.