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[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! Delenda est, baby.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Blast from the Past: China, Political, Commercial and Social... 1847
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[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! Delenda est, baby.
"Everything is exacerbated by the lack of government oversight and monitoring, a persistent problem in all areas of government policy in Taiwan."
ReplyDeleteWait, so the government controlled the market before by not letting foreign rice in, which caused some inconvenience for a massive export economy applying to get free trade from key trade partners, so they had to make the farmers stop farming, which caused some problems too. LOL.
The claim that America forced Taiwan to produce less rice is shown false by the quoted article. It clearly says they were forced to reduce their subsidy, but instead chose to reduce the amount grown to satisfy the requirement. Taiwan could have stripped the subsidy to ZERO and then Taiwan could grow as much rice as they could sell. But the government felt that maybe selling cell phones to the world was worth the price of a few Taiwanese farmers having to work a little harder to sell their rice, or maybe switching jobs.
But now Taiwan's farmland's lay fallow, much as America's factories remain shuttered.
And that is NOT cool. Well, who cares about American factory workers, but Taiwanese elderly rice farmers are important. They vote for the DPP!
We better find some way to give them more subsidies and government monitoring and on the spot guidance or they might just let people build luxury retirement villas or health resorts or whatever else is in demand instead of growing crops, or letting the land lay fallow.
Also, its amazing that people in other countries can manage to force some foreign rice down their throat occasionally, but the analysis here in Taiwan is that the USA made Taiwan do this, and that Taiwan should be allowed to keep their rice market shut while they merrily export everything they make to America.
You know, if you go to Carrefour, they have Thai rice, and even American rice (not sure lately) on the shelves. I doubt the government makes those decisions, so apparently some Taiwanese can and do choose to eat foreign rice.
Couldn't even get the post right, never mind the comment.
ReplyDelete