Hardly had I posted last week on how the Taipei election was giving me the sadz when that selfsame day the venerable Ting Shou-chung, now in his 2,461st run for Taipei mayor, decided to exceed even Pasuya Yao and restore my faith in the mainlander Old Guard's ability to lose China. Er, Taipei.
Speaking at a press conference on women and children's safety last week, Ting, the KMT mayoral candidate in Taipei, Storm Media,(my translation) reported on TingFAIL. Wanting to appear the law-and-order candidate...
Ting stressed that through past big data analysis, people with traits such as being male, not being married, living alone, unemployed, lacking in sex, and with poor interpersonal relationships may have a tendency to abuse children or randomly kill people. These people are time bombs. If you can make good use of data in the future, and cooperate with medical units, police agencies or social welfare organizations to strengthen pre-visits, monitoring, and control of these people to "reduce their harm", you can achieve crime prevention.In Taiwanese society, especially to the mainlander mind, the solution to all social problems is always "more control". Ting was pilloried on the net for his lack of imagination and strong need for control. Recall in the 2016 election run up when also-ran Soong said that only those who were faithful to their wives and children can be faithful to their country. In this view violators of traditional morality like single, unemployed men are violators of the Confucian order, weakening the nation...
But wait! There's more...!
Apple Daily ran this photo of Ting with his logo. JUST TAIPEI is another one of those almost-a-slogan-sounding English phrases that Taiwanese politicians love. The Chinese says "Taipei Future In [my] Hands. A typical play on words, Ting's Chinese name sounds like the phrase "in ___ hand". The screw, though, is priceless. Netizens in Taiwan are well acquainted with the many meanings of the word in several languages. This promises endless amusement.
You thought Sean Lien's hilariously incompetent campaign was an anomaly? One reason that mainlanders, especially elites, are having increasing trouble winning offices as Taiwan's democracy deepens is because part of being a colonial ruling class gives one a strong sense of entitlement. Even Ting, a longtime party stalwart in Taipei, with decades of political experience, can't overcome that handicap.
Meanwhile Pasuya Yao, the DPP's Taipei mayor candidate, upon hearing that Ting had taken out an AK-47 and peppered his own foot, decided to try and stay in the race to the bottom. Seizing upon Ting's mention of housing, Yao once again mentioned his policy of housing rent subsidies, 3K a month for singles and 5K a month for married couples. This attempt to buy votes with tax dollars met with a torrent of abuse on the intertubes, not merely for the stupidity of the policy itself, but because instead of letting Ting stew in his own remarks, Yao brought the spotlight back to himself, demonstrating both policy and political ineptitude.
It's no wonder that independent Ko Wen-je is enjoying a comfortable lead in the polling for Taipei. Keep on trucking, Ting and Yao!
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Daily Links:
- President Tsai to visit a NASA building during her trip to the US. Is the US following its own "salami slicing" strategy? This is the first visit by a president of Taiwan to an official US gov't building.
- Following its strategy of using education and science to assert sovereignty in the South China Sea, Taipei is upgrading its science research facilities on the SCS islands.
- This paper on China has some interesting stuff on the development of the KMT
- Foxconn is pursuing microchip investments in China. Terry Gou obviously is not interested in running for president.
- Second issue of IJTS online
- Kenyan economist on China's debt imperialism via the Belt and Road. Also Reuters with same thing in Pacific
- Larry Diamond in The American Interest on East Asia and the US
- Taiwan Gazette will be reborn! Stay tuned!
- This amazing piece on how the Chinese gov't appears to be running art heists at the world's major museums.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
4 comments:
Oh wow. You are really out of touch with Taipei. Housing is THE number one problem for anyone under 40 years old in Taipei. Everything is insanely expensive, even in already expensive Asia, even in already expensive Taiwan. It's not a *given* that that's how housing should be, and the ultra low birthrights show young peoples extreme discomfort. Mark my words, Taiwan's young generation is one that is going to show themselves increasingly anti-society, anti-establishment, and self-destructive if this is how the older generation in Taiwan looks at their problems.
"'Oh wow. You are really out of touch with Taipei. Housing is THE number one problem for anyone under 40 years old in Taipei.""
D'oh! Are rent subsidies the solution? Nope.
That's really flippant for a normally well-written blog. You don't give any reasoning.
Renting is actually quite good value in Taipei, surprisingly, vs buying. However, the market for rentals is really bad for many reasons including landlord tax evasion (meaning they try to prevent you from registering your household in Taipei). Also, because of historical attitudes towards renting, the rental market is full of shady figures both in terms of renters and landlords. A rental subsidy would fix the tax evasion problem because you couldn't get the subsidy unless you were actually registered. No more worrying if your kids could actually go to the local school if you got a decent priced rental instead of buying. And it would create a larger market for rentals both because more owners would be willing to rent their idle apartments (of which are sth like 15%) and more people would be willing to forgo purchasing and rent.
A reasonable rental market would pop the housing bubble. When faced with a choice of reliable rentals with broad choice vs insane purchases that will lead to losses, fewer and fewer will purchase.
Yao actually has several really good policies and social housing and housing subsidies are among them. They make a ton of economic sense and accomplish fairness as well. Have a deeper look.
That's really flippant for a normally well-written blog. You don't give any reasoning.
You start by accusing me of being out of touch. What did you expect?
A rental subsidy would fix the tax evasion problem because you couldn't get the subsidy unless you were actually registered.
LOL. What would happen to the price of rents if owners know that their renters will get subsidies AND they have to pay taxes? Very quickly rents would rise throughout the city.
You haven't really thought this through.
A rent subsidy is a wealth transfer from the government to owners of property.
Also, can you tell me when it is going to be terminated, this subsidy?
Michael
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