Part of Taiwan's culture is characterized by exploitative behavior, and while it is by no means as bad as many countries, it is possibly one of the worst among advanced countries. Bosses exploit workers (Taiwan's profit share is among the highest in advanced countries), ...
... the rich exploit the poor (Taiwan's wealth inequality is among the highest), professors exploit researchers, trucks bully cars, cars bully motorcyclists, motorcyclists bully pedestrians. And such exploitation oriented toward profit and self-interest means ...
... there has been little impetus to fundamentally question the need for structural change. Taiwan's low-cost business approach is unquestioned, the poor traffic infrastructure is unquestioned, and the neoliberal approach is unquestioned. This has led to stagnation in Taiwan's...
... economy and society. Part of the reason why is a lack of pride for the country, and it's not verbalizing the idea that Taiwan is a country, but to distill such love to want to contribute back, to want to support the people, so that the country can grow together as a whole.
Part of the reason is understandable, because China's oppression and threat against Taiwan (as well as KMT's abetting) means that the development of Taiwan's self-identity has been put on whole, and the lack of a emotional attachment to Taiwan ...
... leads to a perpetual exploitative culture underpinned by the unquestioning adoption of neoliberalism and a loose regulatory culture. A colleague attributes this to the development state but I argue that South Korea has advanced further in this aspect.
It seems like a chicken and egg issue. Should the culture evolve before regulations catch up, or vice versa? But the question then is also asking, do we wait for China's oppression to stop before society can change? To be fair, some regulations could have perhaps strengthened ...
Taiwanese tell me roads are safer. But wealth inequality has gotten worse, wage share remains low. This is by no means unique to Taiwan - the neoliberal regime has pervaded other places. But it has been taken to quite the extreme in Taiwan, ...
... and the contextual issue could be a lack of solidarity for the country, or at least it is still a developing one. But @iingwen's reelection and her perseverance in developing a national identity, as well as policies to bring back Taiwanese companies from China to Taiwan, ...
... all these have led to strengthening confidence among Taiwanese of Taiwan, the stronger embodiment of the Taiwanese identity, and gradually greater love & commitment to the country. The question though is how long the process might take, and how long more Taiwanese should wait
... Having said that, I didn't think the sense of Taiwanese pride would develop so quickly over the last few years and it is to @iingwen's credit that she has the foresight to protect the Taiwanese identity, such that it has been able to galvanize Taiwanese today ...
Nonetheless, exploitation continues. Profit-making, wage depression, and those mentioned above continue, and these are systemic issues that have existed for decades. Do we wait for society to evolve for regulations to catch up, or strengthen regulations to evolve society? ...
... And I think this is the other layer of vision that is needed in Taiwan. How do we envision a Taiwan that people are committed to developing and growing together, how can we develop a Taiwanese citizenry who want to remain in the country and who want to contribute back? ...
All these require that we protect those at the bottom, the workers, the poor, the pedestrians, the assistants, those who have difficulties voicing out and therefore allow such exploitation to become systemic and erode Taiwan's competitiveness and solidarity ...
... But I am not a Taiwanese and I have only been in Taiwan for 4 years. But the systemic issues are clear. The developing social compact is clear. And a lack of a stronger regulatory regime is clear, abetted by the neoliberal approach and underpinned by threats from China, ...
... all these have led to a haphazard societal development and continued disillusionment lasting for decades, which to me, it is clear at least that stronger regulations and enforcement can reverse, but to do so require political will and sacrifice ...
... The political challenge of course, is how saboteurs like KMT to Taiwan's social compact should be managed. And again, I do think @iingwen's transitional justice has gone some way to shift KMT's approach, aided by external threats from China and internal political change.
There is also the question of how fast regulatory change should move so that businesses will not be deterred from Taiwan and those in power would not retaliate against the political decisions. I do not know how these should be tackled, but at least these problems above are ...
... what I'm seeing and what many Taiwanese know too. But everyone is just waiting, waiting for change to happen. And I think regulatory strengthening with a view to strengthen Taiwan's ethics and social development might be the way to go, if we want to promote Taiwan further.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
