Taiwanese are leading miserable lives under the rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, pointing to the latest figures from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), which showed a widening gap between rich and poor.
DGBAS data released on Thursday showed the household income gap widened last year, with the average annual disposable income of the richest families reaching 6.34 times that of the poorest.
If social welfare subsidies and tax benefits are excluded, the income gap between the two hit an all-time high of 8.22 times last year’s average.
DPP caucus whip Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration should take responsibility for the fact that more people now live below the poverty line than under the former DPP government.
The number of families living below the poverty line stood at 93,000 in 2008, a figure that rose to 105,000 last year and to 108,000 by the second quarter of this year, DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said.
Kuan said property prices are surging, with the unit price of a new property in Taipei City skyrocketing from NT$553,000 (US$17,300) per ping (3m³) in 2006 to NT$624,000 per ping of floor space as of last month.
“Home buyers have to eat and drink nothing for 28 straight years to save enough money for a new apartment in the capital,” she said.
The levels of substantive wages and salaries have continued to decline, while the number of people working temporary or dispatch jobs has increased, although their hourly payments have diminished, she said.
The Ma government’s claims of economic growth have only benefited entrepreneurs and the rich.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily said in an editorial yesterday that the gap was the result of businesses relocating production overseas, especially China.
“Economic growth is rising, but ordinary people don’t get to feel it,” the paper said. “The exporters and their shareholders are laughing all the way to the bank, while the poor end up in a hopeless situation.”
Some economists have warned that closer ties with China will hurt income distribution in Taiwan, which was once one of East Asia’s most equal societies, because by moving to China, Taiwanese businesses reduce job opportunities in Taiwan.
The DGBAS has attributed the widening gap in part to the global economic crunch that fueled high unemployment in Taiwan last year.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Shih Su-mei (石素梅) said the poorest 20 percent of households bore the brunt of the economic downturn last year, with their disposable income shrinking 7 percent, compared with an average 2.9 percent drop for all groups.
“That accounted for the sharpening income gap,” Shih said.
Disadvantaged households had a disposable income of NT$282,000 last year, whereas their well-to-do peers had NT$1.79 million, government data showed. The average figure for all households and individuals was NT$888,000 and NT$266,000 respectively.
Shih said the record high jobless rate of 5.85 percent last year was also to blame for the income gap. The disadvantaged were the first to lose jobs during hard times because of their lack of skills, he said.
DGBAS Director Tsai Hung-kun (蔡鴻坤) linked the widening income gap to globalization.
Despite their falling income, Taiwanese spent a bit more last year. On average, individual households spent NT$766,000, up 0.04 percent from a year earlier, sending household savings to an 18-year low of NT$182,000.
Meanwhile, Minister of Council for Economic Planning and Development Christina Liu (劉憶如) said the wealth gap narrowed 1.88 times last year as a result of comprehensive efforts by the government.
Nevertheless, she said, welfare subsidies and tax breaks would not be a cure-all in terms of changing the fundamental structure of the gap between rich and poor.
“Only when the country’s economy is powered by the dual engines of exports and domestic consumption can the problem of uneven distribution of wealth be addressed,” Liu said. “Investing in Taiwan, particularly in the service sector, is the key.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG, STAFF WRITER AND AFP
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