Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said the widening gap between the rich and poor must be solved through taxation and social welfare, but annual local government subsidies to elderly residents to mark the Double Ninth Festival is not the solution.
Ko made the remark after he was questioned by reporters following his speech to a Rotary International youth leadership camp in Taipei yesterday afternoon, when he was asked about a comment he made in September comparing local governments’ cash subsidies to elderly people to buying votes.
Citing French economist Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Ko said earning money with money is faster than earning money with labor, and that is why the gap between rich and poor is widening.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The government can solve the problem in two ways: imposing progressive taxes on the rich or establishing a social welfare system that takes care of minority groups and elderly people, the mayor said.
“Normally, NT$1,500 is given to each elderly person, regardless of individual requirements and situations. However, when money is spent, government policy should have a guiding effect. For example, the government could issue seniors with transit cards providing NT$480 per month for public transportation fares to encourage people to get out and participate in activities,” he said.
“Taipei is the only one [local government] not to give out cash subsidies, but other cities and counties giving out cash does not mean that it is the right thing to do,” he said.
Money should be spent in a way that achieves the greatest benefits, he said.
Subsidies for children are given out after reviewing household income and household registry locations, which means equal amounts are not given to everyone, the mayor said.
Cash for elderly people should not be handed out in equal amounts for everyone, he said, adding that improving the long-term care system is more important than handing out money.
Rotary International is scheduled to hold its 2021 annual convention in Taipei, with more than 40,000 people from more than 100 nations expected to visit for the meeting.
Rotary members asked Ko what type of city he would like to present to visitors if he is re-elected next year.
“With [so many] foreign visitors coming to Taipei, of course we want to make a fortune by having them max out their credit cards,” Ko joked.
The city has three years to prepare for the event and it will establish an ad hoc group to handle those preparations, he said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS