Should We Consider Social Welfares While
Developing Economy
101102038 莊朝丞 Knot
National Central University
Abstract
To the people in Taiwan, we now face a
grievous dilemma, to strengthen the foundation our economy, or to secure our
very right of living, wealth, or even justice? For a long time we had been
arguing about the conflict between the pursuit of economic prosperity and the
disadvantages it brought to the people who are at a lower social status. Can we
ignore the minority’s right of living just for the sake of our economy, can the
government sign any agreement that may harm the right of the minority without
concerning them first?
For instance, China is now a prosperous and wealthy nation as we
know, however the people living in the country side of China have a total
opposite life in contrast with those living in the city. For the sake of the
economy, Chinese government established a policy that by monopolizing the price
of agricultural products in order to raise the price of other industrial
material, and because of this the farmers in China live a rough, destitute
life. There’s no deny that China did build a modern industrial foundation from nothing, however this financial
plunder of China’s country side seriously weakened the labor force of China,
twisting the price of merchandises and stocks, most important of all, it
brought severe social inequality upon the people living in the country side,
and further extended the Urban-rural gap in China.
Unlike China, in Taiwan we didn’t
sacrifice our entire agricultural economy to exchange the flourish of
industrial business. The gap between urban and country area are way much
smaller compared to China, but we still face the same question, will we, can we
sacrifice some people’s interests in order to benefit the whole nation? Take a
look at the issue of the infamous ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework
Agreement), ECFA agrees to Import nearly six hundred Chinese agricultural
products that were used to be restricted to protect our own agricultural
business, and these now unrestricted products will surely bring devastating
impact on our agricultural business, leave thousands of famers lost their life
support. And if we reduced or even stopped the exporting of the agricultural
products, it will definitely bring mass impact on our export-based
economy.
Searching
for the true justice for the minority is the key to dissolve the unbalanced
conflict between economic status and people’s rights. Of course we can’t ignore
the minority because if we leave the gap between the poor and the wealthy
getting bigger, we will face the same problem that China now racking their
brain with. Social inequality, the mass loss of human resources, and serious
Urban-rural gap, these problems rot the roots of a country’s economy, if we
don’t have a sense of trying to prevent these things from happening, Taiwan’s
economy will eventually reach a dead end. When the roots were all rotten, how
can the plant grow higher and stronger?
Should We Consider Social Welfares While
Developing Economy
We can see from the report that, if a
country faced global economic downturn, the problems of unemployment and
poverty will increase violently, and the government had to spend money on the
social security program such as tax reduce and health insurance in order to
maintain social stability in the country. But when the level of unemployment
and poverty had increased so violently that the country’s financial foundation
couldn’t hold them anymore, this country’s economic system might eventually
crumble. As we see from this paragraph: “As
we arrive at the end of 2010, global economic recovery and exit from the crisis
remains slow and uncertain. Despite signs of recovery in global markets, in
many countries unemployment is not falling. Higher levels of unemployment
continue to restrain social security income from contributions while
simultaneously requiring ongoing increased expenditure on benefits.”
The expending on social security is like an endless money-burning vortex, as long as the number of the unemployed remains high, this vicious spiral will ends up becoming the great hole of the country ‘s economy. And as the report suggests, among Asia country, “Social security systems are integral to the management of the social, economic and political dimensions.” (Page 7) Our economic system are bounded with the social security systems, the over-expense of social security will eat up our money which we are going to spend on improving the country’s economic structure.
The expending on social security is like an endless money-burning vortex, as long as the number of the unemployed remains high, this vicious spiral will ends up becoming the great hole of the country ‘s economy. And as the report suggests, among Asia country, “Social security systems are integral to the management of the social, economic and political dimensions.” (Page 7) Our economic system are bounded with the social security systems, the over-expense of social security will eat up our money which we are going to spend on improving the country’s economic structure.
from page 7
The economic policy in Asia and Pacific area
And
what does this issue has anything that is related to the argument of balance
between economy and social fairness? Well, in Taiwan we have a mature structure
of social security, the farmer got the agriculture subvention, the poor got
monthly financial support, and the sick got health insurance. When our society
seems so perfect and calm, our government is already having troubles financing
these social securities. But as recent years our government kept pursuing the
economic prosperity, more and more farmers and workers or those so-called “the
minority” had lost their job or having a hard time in their life. Thus, the
expending of social security had increased highly over recent years(note 1),
and this became a heavy burden while Taiwan is trying hard building its
economy.
Next, I would like to talk
about EFCA to demonstrate my perspectives more.
In recent years, Taiwanese government is
struggling to change the agricultural nature of Taiwan into something that is
more export-oriented and has more value reflecting on the market. Does our
agricultural income not important enough to have an impact on the foundation of
Taiwan economy? Here is a passage from the article which I found, “not only did
Agriculture supply the food to support the nation but it supplied a large part
of the labour force which was indispensable for the development of the
economy.(Page 568)” When our government trying desperately to make Taiwan
become an export-oriented country, we always forgot or intentionally ignore the
foundation of our economy. How can we say that our government ”ignore” the
agricultural industry in Taiwan? Look at the signing of ECFA (Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement) and the answer will reveal itself.
My co-worker, Robert, mentioned a man
who point out the problems that might come after signing ECFA, Professor
Kenneth S. Lin of the department of economics at National Taiwan University,
says that the signing of ECFA means the decrease of job opportunities and the
increase of unemployment rate. These unemployed people are mostly farmers and
traditional industry worker, these people’s social status are near the lower
part of our society. People always view them with an economical judgment,
conceiving them as a not-so-profitable group in our economic system,
agriculture had always been thought as an industry that is doomed to be
eliminated. But in the article, it mentioned that “it must be taken into
account that many of these agricultural people had side-jobs in manufacturing
and commerce.” Although this article is writing about Japan’s economic development,
it can also be applied on Taiwan’s working class. A survey(*1) done by the
Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, shows that compared to Professional
farmers, Part-time farmers had now become the major group of Taiwan’s
agriculture system. And so this points out an important concept, farmers and
workers, they might have other side-jobs in their life, one cannot define their
economic position only as farmer and worker, we have to take account of their
side job’s economic value and contribution.
from “The Survey of Taiwan’s social
Transition”
An image of the proportion of Taiwanese
farmers' career decision
In my last annotation I mentioned the raise of unemployment will
cause our social security expense become too high for our country to afford,
and as Professor Lin said, signing of ECFA means the decrease of job
opportunities and the increase of unemployment rate. These unemployed people
were mostly farmer and workers, when our country is already having troubles
with these people’s social security expenses, Taiwan also has to deal with the
problem of losing a large part of the labour force. These two major cracks in
Taiwan economy are what we are going to face when signing ECFA, since our
government didn’t even consider these problems, how can we trust them to make
the next decision for Taiwan’s future economy?
Besides, we also have to thoroughly inspect
that whether our government has the qualification to practice its authority and
privilege. Most important of all, we need to objectively contemplate that if
our government is suitable enough to practice Capitalism.
“Without a
whole host of government rules, capitalism could not exist. Even regulations
and social programs help sustain a market economy by fixing many of its serious
social and economic problems.” - Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount
Holyoke College, “Capitalism Requires Government, page: 1 of 7”
Capitalism
and Socialism, these two economic theories are both based on the condition of
“good moral behaviors.” Capitalism relies on a well-functioning
and impartial governing system, if the government was prone to
corruption, Capitalism could not be fully practiced in that country. The
authority makes rules and regulations to interfere with the so-called “free
market” and it also bear the duty to accelerate the economic structure by
providing job opportunities, maintaining a good market system, and bring us
both economic and social justice. In short words, we need a stable and fair
government to protect our rights and our wealth, providing the resources we
need for building the economic foundation.
However,
can this idea be fully practice in the real world? Is our government really
untouchable enough that we can rely anything on them? Will people in the world
be so morally disciplined that any kinds of corruption are eliminated in front
of our eyes?
Looking
through the history of human race, the answer is certainly not.
From the article Government as the Primary Protector of our Rights and Liberties, the author, Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College, wrote “We depend heavily on the tools of democratic government to protect people’s rights…democratic governments have constitutions and institutions that enable us to effectively protect our rights and freedoms.” But in recent days, Taiwanese government appeared to have gone backward with this idea, for example, the Da-Po incident(note 1.). We can see that our own government ignores the rights and interests of the people it should protect base on some nonexistent and forceful reason, and in the end the company (InnoLux Company) which need the land most said they don’t need these land anymore(note 2.) Then what’s the economic profit in collecting these lands? There is no economic contribute to our country, so what’s the reason for the government sacrificing our right? It is clearly that there is corruption in our government, and this corruption clearly held the economic development of Taiwan, farmers lost their land so they couldn’t contribute anything for the economic, the collected land also had no economic value since the company didn’t need them. If the government didn’t fulfill their function as a protective shield, but to become a shiv that strike back on its own people, Capitalism became a broken theory and the country will fall.
From the article Government as the Primary Protector of our Rights and Liberties, the author, Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College, wrote “We depend heavily on the tools of democratic government to protect people’s rights…democratic governments have constitutions and institutions that enable us to effectively protect our rights and freedoms.” But in recent days, Taiwanese government appeared to have gone backward with this idea, for example, the Da-Po incident(note 1.). We can see that our own government ignores the rights and interests of the people it should protect base on some nonexistent and forceful reason, and in the end the company (InnoLux Company) which need the land most said they don’t need these land anymore(note 2.) Then what’s the economic profit in collecting these lands? There is no economic contribute to our country, so what’s the reason for the government sacrificing our right? It is clearly that there is corruption in our government, and this corruption clearly held the economic development of Taiwan, farmers lost their land so they couldn’t contribute anything for the economic, the collected land also had no economic value since the company didn’t need them. If the government didn’t fulfill their function as a protective shield, but to become a shiv that strike back on its own people, Capitalism became a broken theory and the country will fall.
Capitalism requires the government who practice it to take control of the
economic system, but it also requires the government to be pure enough to do
nothing but for the interest of people. It seem that morally, our government is
not “pure” enough to practice this system, the corruption obviously block our
economic development. When the government turned against us, how can we
contribute to the economy?
Therefore, I will cite a
concrete instance to illustrate and prove my statement about corruption more
clearly.
Recently,
Taiwanese government announced that the freeway toll stations will all change
into the Electronic Toll Collection System(ETC). Now called eTag
system, which is an electronic system that, as its owner Far Eastern
Electronic Toll Collection Co. (FETC) proclaimed, will increase
passing volume of toll stations, save the time of payment, improve convenience
and safety, reduce air pollution, and reach truly financial equality. And
because of this, Taiwanese government decided to lay off nearly 800 toll
collectors, making them wondering for their future.
However,
the eTag system now faces great deficits, as the company itself
claims(note 1), FETC has already lost 3 billion NTD. Also from the static
of current operation of eTag system, provided by Taiwan Area National Freeway
Bureau, indicating that the rate of usage had risen nearly 20 % between the
year 2012 and 2013(the chart), which is the time that Taiwanese government
announced the total change of freeway toll stations. The great leap of eTag
appliance is not because Taiwanese people favored it, it's because the government
forced us to do it. We can even consider this act of government as a violation
to our freedom of choice in the Constitution, because we have no other options
to choose but eTag system.
The chart of ETC(eTag) usage rate
As for those toll collectors that were laid off by the
government, their rights and treatment are certainly not guaranteed
by Taiwanese government and FETC. On August, 2013, FETC and the
government once promised that they will assist the toll collectors
for future transference of their career, but there were only 30 people
successfully change their jobs, and the number of the laid off collectors were
244 and more. Now, there are near 800 people waiting for job transference,
although FETC still promised to assist the transference, the future of these
people lies in darkness. They are mostly low-educated and aged people, it is
hard for them to find another stable job in nowadays society. The job of our
government is to protect and support our living, and if all these people don't
find their jobs, the expense of social security that are going to spend on them
will surely be a great burden for Taiwanese government.
In
addition to the aforementioned problems, here is a bigger question lies ahead.
Why does our government be so persist in
collaborating with FETC, the company which had been suffering great deficit
from the time Taiwanese government announced the presence of ETC. And just
after FETC got the open bidding of ETC, almost immediately burst out
the news of SONG,NAI-WU(note 2), the ex- confidential secretary of Taiwan
Area National Freeway Bureau, accepting the bribe from the tenderer, and try to
leak out bidding information to the tenderer. He had been sentenced by Taiwan
Supreme Court to serve 12 years in jail. With such flagrant Bribery present in
front of their eyes, instead of finding another company, Taiwanese government
choose to let FECT keep working on the ETC project. Until now, FECT is still
operating on the ETC project, and our government is still trying to pursuade us
into believing this company is the best choice for us. How can we trust the
government if corruption had brazenly rooted in? How can we depend on our
government to protect us if it kept ignoring our right for living and freedom?
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Discussion&Conclusion
The balance between the role of government
and the social welfares of the people is very hard to decide which one is more
important. The government often takes the majority's welfares and advantages
into consideration, especially those people in the highest class of this
society; while the people think that the government should never sacrifice the
minority, especially the marginally disadvantage groups. Instead, the government
should strive for preventing its citizens from those hazards which will
intimidate life and property. Most important of all, the government should
accept the supervision of its people and really practice its duty and
obligation into the society. However, it is a very controversial issue to
debate whether developing economy is more crucial than protecting the people's
rights. As far as I am concerned, which one is more significant and conforms to
social justice depends on the public to decide.
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Reference
1. ISSA’s Social
Security Observatory. Dynamic Social Security: Securing social stability and economic
development (chapter 1 and chapter 6).
2. (6 March 2007). The
Developing Economies (volume 4, issue 4).
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1746-1049.1966.tb00493.x/pdf
3. The Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica (12 August 2007). The Survey of Taiwan’s social Transition.
http://www.ios.sinica.edu.tw/TSCpedia/index.php/%E7%84%A1%E7%B1%B3%E6%A8%82%EF%BC%8C%E6%A8%82%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%3F%E8%BE%B2%E6%B0%91%E8%88%87%E8%BE%B2%E6%A5%AD%E7%9A%84%E8%95%AD%E7%91%9F
4. Government is Good. A web
project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College
http://www.governmentisgood.com/index.php
5. Douglas
J. Amy. Capitalism Requires Government
http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=13&p=2
http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=13&p=2
6. Douglas
J. Amy. Government as the Primary
Protector of our Rights and Liberties
http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=19
http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=19
7. Da-Pu Incident
http://kalamazoo.pixnet.net/blog/post/25455015-%E5%A4%A7%E5%9F%94%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E6%87%B6%E4%BA%BA%E5%8C%85
http://kalamazoo.pixnet.net/blog/post/25455015-%E5%A4%A7%E5%9F%94%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E6%87%B6%E4%BA%BA%E5%8C%85
8. InnoLux
claims the need of Jhu-Nan science base was no longer pressing
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2010/new/jul/13/today-life11.htm
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2010/new/jul/13/today-life11.htm
9. FECT's claim of deficit
10. Taiwan
supreme court sentenced SONG, NAI-WU to serve 12 years in jail because of
bribery
11. Taiwan Area
National Freeway Bureau. Toll&Service
Div. (16 December 2009). The Progress of ETC system
12. Taiwan Area National
Freeway Bureau. Toll&Service Div. (4 November 2013) Special Report on Electronic Toll
Collection --「Public Participation in Build and Operate Project for Electronic
Toll Collection System on Freeways」
