President Tsai, Please Show Concern: Cabbies Commit Suicide in a Row

  President Tsai, Please Show Concern: Cabbies Commit Suicide in a Row

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 2, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

It is quite satirical to talk about it: when the President and Premier stated, one after another, that Taiwan’s pay was raised and the economy had never been better in the last 20 years, however, four taxi drivers committed suicide in the last 10 days, and the reasons to take their own lives all pointed to financial burdens, showing that the economy was not "the best in nearly 20 years" as the President had said.

In the suicide cases of cabbies because of financial burdens, some were related to problems in the taxicab industry, while others were related to factors of the holistic economy, which was not as prosperous and bright as the government had embellished. More importantly, the trend of an M-shaped society and industry became more serious, and could even deteriorate in the future.

According to the related labor union and legislators, that cabbies would commit suicide because of financial burdens means that “the Ministry of Transportation and Communications commits homicide by system,” referring to the fact that it has tolerated Uber to grow ad infinitum, forcing cabbies to engage in competition under unfair conditions.

A similar situation, in fact, appears in different industries. In the past decade, of the 25 different sectors of the manufacturing industry, only 8 sectors have a higher growth rate than the median growth rate of the entire industry; in the remaining 17 sectors, which employ over a majority of total workers, have a growth rate lower than the median value. The situation is even more serious in the service industry and the agriculture/mining industries; in the industries that employ more than 80% of all workers of their industries have a growth rate lower than the median value. Viewed from this wave of economic recovery, it has mainly been driven by the export industries that enjoy a double-digit growth rate, among which the electronics related industries especially outshined. The corporations listed on the Taiwan stock market make frequent, record-breaking profits, even showing double-digit growth. However, we have also seen that industries geared to domestic demand have closed down one after another, and storefronts for rent signs have increased in number; in the first six months of this year, the number of companies dissolved has increased by more than 20%. These were mostly small and medium-sized enterprises.

It may not be possible for the government to reverse the trend, but at least it could reduce and ease the situation, and extend assistance to those being affected. Taking a macro and long-range perspective, the government should also ponder how to better strengthen the effects of redistribution of income, on the one hand, to slow down the deterioration of the M-shaped society, and on the other hand, increase tax collection so that it would have more resources to care for the disadvantaged. In addition, in this country, although we have for long had subsidies for medium and lower income brackets, unemployment compensation, and other welfare measures, there is still quite a distance to a wholesome social safety network. Taiwan does not have to go on the path of a social welfare state; nevertheless, a better-structured social safety network is still necessary, because if the M-shaped industry and society continued, similar tragedies for the economically disadvantaged would only climb and not abate.

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