Taiwan Church News
3319 Edition
October 5 – 11, 2015
Editorial
Seeking Economic Justice In An Age Of Inequality
Recent international events for Taiwan society are no more impressive than economic slowdown, Syria’s civil war, aggression of ISIS and the exodus of those middle east refugees. As there are no direct impact on Taiwan of those issues like ISIS expansion and the refugee problems, the economic slowdown becomes the most urgent issue for Taiwan society due to an aging population and the related change of population structure. Some scholar even sternly warns that the government will be bankrupted for sure in a near future, if the pension problem could not be effectively solved! If this prophecy came true, it would definitely be a great disaster for Taiwan and her next generations.
To maintain a sustainable life for us and our children on this island, how can we allow the outdated and unreasonable pension system undermining our ways of lives? We don’t have to play the blame game toward those retirees from the public sector, as they had been worked diligently hard contributing their best services to this country when their wages were quite meager after WWII. Those strange phenomenons of current unreasonable high pension, for example that some retirees even receive higher pension than their past salary before retirement, are due to a wrong policy. If those retirees with unreasonably high pension could organize to negotiate with the government, settling down an ideal income replacement ratio, then the pension crisis could have the chance to be solved. Otherwise, the future of Taiwan and the prospects of the economics and well-beings would become very worrying.
Due to frequent news of lay-off recently, together with the official statistics about the increase of involuntary unemployment, it is very obvious that Taiwan economics is going down! According to an up-paid leave statistics by Ministry of Labor, published on 11 October 2015, ” The number of companies that practice un-paid leave in September reaches 26 with 1,233 people affected. Compared with 669 people of un-paid leave in August, the affected people(1,233) in September increased 84%. … The number of un-paid leave in September reaches a record high in last 19 months”.
After Taiwan’s giant financial conglomerates have kidnapped the government, relegating those elected officials as their mafia escorts, prevalent are those “rogue economics” symptoms in Taiwan society: the government dared to confiscate the land of the people with cheap price via the administrative power, allow the construction company to acquire the land through legal process and shamelessly sell those confiscated lands or realty in high price. Facing the chaos resulted from this rogue economics, it reminds us a similar scenario occurred in the biblical age of the prophet Isaiah: the Israelite broke the covenant with God, the rich grabbed the inherited land of the poor in greed, and lots of people lost their house and lands to become the slaves.
Against this horrible injustice, God had warned us through the prophet Isaiah: “Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land! The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.” These words of the Bible is a great reminder for us about the future of Taiwan!
The miserable picture prophesied by the prophet Isaiah is never the option we would like to see in Taiwan, however, seeking economic justice in an age of inequality is always our common task and an ultimate concern!
