Even Great Decisions Should Consider the Impact on People's Livelihood

 Even Great Decisions Should Consider the Impact on People's Livelihood

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

April 5, 2017

 Translation of an Except

The success or failure, and the hollowness or substance of government decisions have never been just a question of figures and we must scrutinize their harm or benefits to people's livelihood. According to media reports, in the past ten months, the number of Mainland tourists to Taiwan has been cut to 1.12 million visitor-trips; the estimated loss in tourism revenue has reached NT$55 billion (nearly US$2 billion), hotels, restaurants, travel businesses and night market stalls having suffered the most.

The sharp decrease in Mainland tourism to Taiwan is the result of the changes in the Tsai government’s cross-Strait policies; however, the abrupt freezing of cross-Strait relations has elicited negative effects far greater than this. Likewise is the policy of “one mandatory holiday, one flexible day-off.” The Labor Standards Act, as amended, was meant to care for labor; in reality, it has driven up the hiked commodity prices and transportation fares, while the services people have gotten, on the other hand, have generally been shrinking. So it is with annuity reforms. The majority of the public all agree that the annuities for retired military, civil servants, and public school teachers need to be reformed; however, if the reforms should result in beating down or eliminating a large chunk of the middle class in society, the whole country would only fall into “poverty for all.” Let us stop and think. Retired military, civil servants, and public school teachers had originally supported the livelihood of their own elder generation or younger generation. If whatever left in their assets should be cut to the bone, the end result would be to transpose the burden onto the state. Isn’t that true?

President Tsai has introduced many grandiose and pompous policies. We wholeheartedly hope that these policies must be able to stand firmly and benefit the people's livelihood.

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