Economics links
Advice from a successful writer (Joe Scalzi) about being a financially successful writer. More.
In Africa particularly, no amount of foreign aid failure is too much failure.
About the latest book in the successful genre of pop economics. Looking at J K Galbraith’s Affluent Society 60 years on.
The UK hopes to raise money in the Middle East ( Read more... )
In Africa particularly, no amount of foreign aid failure is too much failure.
About the latest book in the successful genre of pop economics. Looking at J K Galbraith’s Affluent Society 60 years on.
The UK hopes to raise money in the Middle East ( Read more... )
Firstly, in terms of tax, it's ludicrous that I earn just over half here of what I would in Australia, yet because of direct tax and indirect tax (the cost of living here is so much lower), I can actually save considerably more money than I would in Australia. I was by no means a high income earner in Australia, yet I'd be really hard pressed to make the case that I got value for money for the taxes I paid there. Just in terms of the health system, I pay less than $400 (AUD) in each year and a visit to the doctor (including basic medicine) is a little more than $5 (AUD), and my experiences with the Taiwanese health system (GPs and hospitals) have been excellent. What the hell does the money get spent on in Australia? As a result, money is one of many reasons I am not living in Australia right now. If I were to move to one of the Gulf states, I could make thousands of dollars tax free per month, as well as have a whole lot of other perks (such as a house, car with driver, airline tickets) thrown in. Furthermore, under either scenario, I wouldn't have to put up with juvenile delinquents. Remind me again why anyone would be a teacher in Australia?
As far as Gailbraith is concerned, I'm somewhere in the middle. I believe economic growth is a tool like any other that can be used for good or bad.
The article provided said the following:
"Half a century on it is time to launch a counter-attack against the ideas that have become the conventional wisdom. Economic growth will not provide all the answers to society’s problems, but it is a necessary start. Contrary to the arguments of the sceptics, it does not necessarily lead to environmental degradation or unhappiness. The resources generated by economic growth give humanity the ability to reshape the environment for its own benefit. A rich society is also one where we can potentially spend less time working for a living and more time engaging in more fulfilling tasks."
Yet increasingly, we do see environmental degradation and unhappiness. Nowhere is this more evident than in Taiwan (having the second highest population density in the world really doesn't help). It's my belief that when the current generation of oldies die off, this country will be left with absolutely no culture, unless you consider eating KFC, singing karaoke and playing online video games to be culture. There are a lot more fat kids here than I expected, and parents (who use private English schools as de-facto baby-sitting services) work ridiculous hours and are incredibly shrill about their little darlings and seem to want to foist their own neuroses onto all around them. Then there's the hushed over topic of suicide in this country, and the general pressure on people to be "successful". Then there's the environment, which really is in a pretty sorry state here. Out in the countryside recently, I climbed a mountain only to see a grey-brown haze over all of Taipei and Taoyuan counties. All of this is the direct consequence of a national psyche that pursues economic growth doggedly to the exception of all else, and they're really going to see that rise up and bite them in a few years. Having said all that, I actually really like living here, and the people are genuinely really friendly.
Still, as I said though, economic growth is a tool that can work for or against people, depending upon how it's used, and I think it's equally crazy to be totally optimistic or pessimistic about it. It's prudent to be sceptical about it. To what extent has it been a great thing in the West when people are stressed out of their minds and they or their kids are on a cocktail of prescription drugs? To what extent has it been a great thing in the West when people work long hours and are estranged from their families? To what extent has it been a great thing when so much of the "prosperity" has been financed by credit that people can barely keep under control? These are serious questions that need to be addressed.
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