Ma government repays its supporters

Contemplating lunch?

The fearsome concentration of wealth in Taiwan has grown faster than most places....

The number of people whose liquid assets are worth US$1 million or more in Taiwan increased 11.8 percent last year to 125,000 — the biggest growth among the four economies known as the Asian Tigers, according to a wealth report published by Aspire Lifestyles.

Note that this is occurring as the economy lurches to a halt and income remains stagnant. The Ma Administration has rewarded its 1% supporters with delays and obfuscations on the stock transaction tax (finally imposed this year), the real estate assessment, capital gains tax, and other policies which hinder the transfer wealth from the middle and lower classes to the rich. Oh, and in 2009 the Ma Administration lowered the inheritance tax from 50% to 10%. Current KMT Presidential Candidate, Eric Chu, knowing on which side the KMT mian bao gets its 1% butter, is pandering to this crowd with calls saying the capital gains tax had been a mistake. The public knows this, one reason why Chu's numbers are well below 20% now.

The resulting housing bubble is devouring Taiwan, but it is also devouring the KMT. Keelung and Taoyuan are both becoming more pan-Green as young people -- overwhelmingly Green -- move out to those areas to find less expensive housing, changing the demographics of once solidly blue areas...
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Daily Links:

• CPI blog is already flooded with stuff on the election. Love or Bread: Public Opinion on X-strait relations during the Ma era * Cross-Strait Air Links Liberalization
• Green party campaign video
• The Pro-annexation left tries to prosyletize abroad
• DPP approves list of other party candidates it will support
• FACTOID on a hospital handout: Taiwan annually uses 327 million sleeping pills of various types.

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