[3112] Hunger strike staged outside legislature to protest economic gap between rich and poor

Hunger strike staged outside legislature to protest economic gap between rich and poor

Reported by Lin Yi-ying

Written by Lydia Ma

In the wake “Occupy” protests budding around the world, Taiwanese citizens spearheaded their own protest agai

nst capitalism in front of Taipei 101 on October 15, 2011. Protesters clarified that they didn’t have qualms about people becoming rich, but rather, they were opposed to national politics being driven by money and profits.

Wu Tao-chang, a CEO of a local corporation and an elder of Tai-peng-keng Presbyterian Church, lauded “Occupy” protests around the world and said that capitalism had gone out of control in recent years. The fallouts of such extremism driven by greed are global apathy against corporations, ever increasing economic gap between rich and poor, and a global recession.

In response to the ever widening economic gap between the rich and the poor, Anti-Poverty Alliance sponsored two hunger strikes, each lasting 44 hours, in front of the Legislative Yuan on October 16-20, 2011.

Demonstrators denounced the Ma administration for allowing banks to charge exorbitant rates in revolving credit for credit card loans, resulting in many people being unable to get out of debt. They demanded that several legislations pertaining to credit card loans, student loans, and housing loans be amended. One demonstrator even shaved his head to protest the collusion between government officials and bankers.

According to Elder Lin Yung-song, a lawyer from Chinan Presbyterian Church, the economic disparity between the rich and the poor is fundamentally a structural problem. He contrasted the extremely low wages for the working class with the cuts in inheritance tax from 50% to 10% for the richest class as example. He further said that a revolving credit of up to 40% in addition to penalty fees from credit card companies explain why it is so difficult for many to get out of debt.

A nation’s progress is not only determined by its technological and economic advancement, said Lin, but rather, by how its lowliest people are cared for and treated. In Taiwan, people who live on wages make up 44% of the nation’s GDP, but the current universal average is 55% and the OECD’s average is between 60% to 65%.