The economy and standard of living are both important issues in the presidential election campaign. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
The main difference between the two candidates may in fact lie in the manner in which they want to open up toward China. Ma wants a wider opening, while Hsieh stresses that national security must be a consideration and that the opening of cross-strait trade should be more limited, focusing more on global markets. Although both candidates are talking about a prosperous economy, neither of their economic prescriptions may be what Taiwan needs at this stage.
Although the 5.7 percent economic growth Taiwan experienced last year cannot compare with the double digit growth of developing countries, it was a brilliant performance for an economically developed country. Despite this, many Taiwanese still feel life is hard. Why?
The discrepancy between economic data and daily life is the result of deteriorating income distribution -- economic growth has not trickled down from the top earners to the lower income levels, resulting in an M-shaped distribution. High income earners are monopolizing most of the benefits from capital investments and technological innovation, while middle class incomes are not seeing gains, with many people even falling behind and joining the ranks of low income households, feeding a rapid increase in the newly poor.
This income distribution is the result of globalization and competition with China. Salaries are kept down by China's low prices and cheap labor. As Taiwanese demand higher salaries, companies relocate to China, resulting in a virtual salary freeze in Taiwan over the past few years. As soon as local product prices increase, similar but inferior Chinese products are introduced. Meanwhile the Taiwanese public is also suffering from cost increases brought on global increases in oil, grain and raw material prices.
Although both candidates want to promote economic growth, failure to address unequal income distribution might make that problem even worse, causing even more people to feel exploited. In particular, Ma's 633 policy and his all out promotion of economic growth might have an even bigger negative impact on income distribution than Hsieh's economic policy suggestions, especially since Ma's "cross-strait common market" proposal means further deregulating labor, product and capital exchanges. As far as products, prices, salaries and capital movement go -- these changes could add fuel to the fire of negative impact.
Ma's economic thinking seems to be based on the outdated mindset of a developing country. He seems unable to recognize that Taiwan has already entered the low to medium economic growth phase of a developed economy. At this stage, high economic growth will not necessarily have a positive impact on Taiwan's development because problems are no longer of a supply character, but are rather related to income distribution.
More emphasis on social justice and concern for welfare policies for the lower income levels are what this country really needs.
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) has formally announced his intention to stand for permanent party chairman. He has decided that he is the right person to steer the fledgling third force in Taiwan’s politics through the challenges it would certainly face in the post-Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) era, rather than serve in a caretaker role while the party finds a more suitable candidate. Huang is sure to secure the position. He is almost certainly not the right man for the job. Ko not only founded the party, he forged it into a one-man political force, with himself
RSS