Teacher Kathy's Corner: Poverty in Taiwan

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Poverty in Taiwan

By many accounts, Taiwan has all but eradicated poverty, but this is misleading. Taiwan's poverty line is just too low. Local culture and the government assume family will take care of its own, and that's not always the case. Also if a household has a home, the government considers this an asset that may hurt their ability to receive welfare benefits.

BUDGET IN TAIWAN

Taipei Poverty Line 15, 544 NT a month

minimum wage salary (2018) 22,000 a month

average rent 10,000 NT

average mortgage 20,000

electricity and water 500 NT

cable/internet 800 NT

phone 800

food 16% of salary (2012)

school fees ?

car maintenance/public transportation 13% of salary (2012)

leisure 10% of salary (2012)

healthcare 14.5% of salary (2012)

“Meeting Dr. Sun行動代號：孫中山” (2014) Read WSJ article.

I. Intro Questions

What does poverty look like in Taiwan?

Who in Taiwan is most vulnerable to poverty?

Who are some of the stakeholders and what are they doing for low income and vulnerable people?

Compare the poverty level with the cost of meeting basic needs in Taipei vs. Yilan
Compare the cost of meeting basic needs with the federally mandated minimum wage

Poverty in Taiwan, Index Mundi, Poor People's Taipei, Video, Jobless Dies of Starvation in Tainan

Taiwan's poor increasingly rely on state welfare.

Taiwan struggling to afford social services

In this Taiwan focused unit, the students will present the articles to the class. Each group has to teach the class 5 vocabulary words, the main idea of the article and provide a group solution to one of the problems in the article. This will be the same as a test.

II. Readings:

Office Workers Under 40 Can't Afford homes (Taipei Times, April 2017)

Young Workers Salaries (Taipei Times. April 2017)
Elder Subsidies Not the Way to Handle Rich-Poor Gap (Taipei Times, November 2017)

Lin Raises Hourly Minimum (Keoni Everington, Taiwan News. Sept. 2017)
Who is poor?: New Poverty Line (Wendy Lee, Taiwan News, December 2016)

I made a simplified version of the articles here.
EXTRA: Hong Kong (November 2017)

The students have 3 classes to prepare:

Class 1: Use their dictionaries to translate the article.
Class 2: Complete Worksheet that breaks down their article.
Class 3: Create visual aids視覺輔助工具 (charts, graphs), decide who is saying which part of the presentation and practice their presentation
Class 4: PRESENTATIONS (Grading rubric for presentations here.)
Class 5: Review and Test

B Class recommendations to solve some of the financial problems in Taiwan:

Increase minimum wage 法定最低工資
Give internships實習期 and training classes to students to gain job experience and skills
Give job training to low income and middle-income workers
Subsidize資助 housing and mortgages for young workers under 40
Raise the poverty threshold 貧窮線
Force companies to hire low-income workers
Raise taxes on the rich