Philip, I was pandering to the common misperception of Taiwan as being a source of cheap clones, in fact most are now made in China and other third world countries, with the high tech parts made in Taiwan. the success of Taiwan has hit its export market hard, and now workers in Taiwan get wages around 50% of Canadians, but with far lower fringe benefits. I have made 15 trips to Taiwan over the past 15 years, and I have see the changes first hand. When I was first there the US $ was 40 NT$, now it is around 20+, and the visible wealth is far greater than it was.There has also been huge inflation in all costs and wages there. I think that the cost of living in Taiwan is less than half that in Canada, due to cheaper food, housing etc. However if you want to get a Canadian style apartment, and eat Canadian style food, you may pay 50% more. It is not really a good thing for Taiwan, as the runaway cost of wages has put a lot of small computer and instrument makers out of business. Too many people play the stock market. My agent had his secretary quit, she just went to an upstairs broker, and sat there all day trading stocks, she made 10 times her wages. Huge number were doing it, until the crash, and now it has settled down, to a reasonable pace. The traffic and smog from the scooters was so bad it made the scooter riders get black faces. Has the subway been finished?.
Bill |
