Turning tables is a part of political life in Taiwan. When the DPP was in power the KMT blamed them for a stagnant economy, while the DPP defended itself by asking how much a government can or should do to control the economy. Now that the fascistoonationalists are in power and the economy continues to go sour--with more people now living below the poverty line than under the previous government and the income gap widening--the DPP is calling on the KMT to "shoulder responsibility" for the economic mess. The current government lays all the blame on globalization.
Admittedly part of the problem is globally influenced, but a larger part is perhaps domestically generated. First, the government's policies favor the upper middle class, thereby encouraging the income gap between the richest and the poorest. For those who can find work, they are typically taking on temporary or dispatch jobs. Real wages continue to decline.
As for those of the business class so favored by the government, they are responsible for not only economic ills but moral crimes through their wholesale abandonment of "the nation" in favor of profit margins. Government efforts to snuggle up to the Chinese Communists have benefited those who abandon their homeland responsibilities and move their factories to China, rather than staying in Taiwan and figuring out how to produce more with less.
A quote from Christina Liu, the Minister of Council for Economic Planning and Development, is a good way to end this diatribe: "Only when the country's economy is powered by the dual engines of exports and domestic consumption can the problem of uneven distribution of wealth be addressed."
Read the news on this at the Taipei Times website: "DPP uses DGBAS data to attack Ma."
Admittedly part of the problem is globally influenced, but a larger part is perhaps domestically generated. First, the government's policies favor the upper middle class, thereby encouraging the income gap between the richest and the poorest. For those who can find work, they are typically taking on temporary or dispatch jobs. Real wages continue to decline.
As for those of the business class so favored by the government, they are responsible for not only economic ills but moral crimes through their wholesale abandonment of "the nation" in favor of profit margins. Government efforts to snuggle up to the Chinese Communists have benefited those who abandon their homeland responsibilities and move their factories to China, rather than staying in Taiwan and figuring out how to produce more with less.
A quote from Christina Liu, the Minister of Council for Economic Planning and Development, is a good way to end this diatribe: "Only when the country's economy is powered by the dual engines of exports and domestic consumption can the problem of uneven distribution of wealth be addressed."
Read the news on this at the Taipei Times website: "DPP uses DGBAS data to attack Ma."
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