Time to overcome greed
Everyone keeps saying it: If you all passed the civil service exam to become civil servants and then spent your working lives serving the nation, then had your pensions reduced after you retired — and if you are displeased and angry because of this — then the rest of us can understand that and we will sympathize with you.
However, the question is if all of you and your colleagues have given serious thought to why your pensions are being cut?
It is because if we do not reform the pension system now and instead wait until all of us are broke, that would be cruel and unfair to all the young civil servants.
Have you ever considered the fact that your salaries are being paid with the taxes levied on the hard-earned money that the rest of us have earned by working hard, day and night, in Taiwan and overseas in search of international business opportunities and by all the workers in Taiwan — all of us together?
You are about the same age as I am, and your lives probably do not differ too much from mine. The difference in our contribution is simply the result of our different positions.
I am quite convinced that the tax contribution that we businesspeople have made, and the responsibility we have taken for our employees and their families, do not fall behind the contributions you have made.
Today, the nation is wrestling with fiscal problems and is merely making a fair adjustment to the treatment that high-income earners enjoy.
This is nothing more than a wish to improve national finances and create a healthy and sustainable fiscal situation that will be able to give younger civil servants a sense of confidence and security as they look to the future.
If we do not take care of ourselves, we think that everything will fall apart — this is human nature, the way we all work.
However, it is time that we come to our senses and overcome our greed, anger and irrational behavior.
It is time that we put an end to all this.
Liu Tsung-lin
Taipei
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