Cash handouts
I recently read an article by Daai News anchor Ni Mingjun (倪銘均) in which Ni called upon people to exercise their compassion by donating their NT$6,000 cash payment taken from last year’s tax surplus to others.
Unfortunately, this idea suffers from a lack of understanding of economics and of the original intent behind the policy. First, compassion also needs wisdom, not indiscriminate love; nor should everyday entertainment be regarded as an evil. The government’s policy of distributing the money is aimed at stimulating an economy affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. When members of the public receive the money, the hope goes, it will promote consumption and thereby stimulate the domestic economy.
Second, more than 70 percent of Taiwan’s service sector has been hit by the pandemic and business has been substantially affected, from store leases expiring and forced closures in some cases to, at the more serious end, businesses having to shut down at a loss.
Today, three years after the start of the pandemic, the shoots of economic recovery are gradually emerging, and so the government’s NT$6,000 payments should facilitate the process, making consumers more willing to spend and injecting cash back into the production chain of the service sector.
Third, Taiwanese are compassionate, as we saw in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in Japan and the earthquake in Turkey, when Taiwanese consolidated their habit and tendency to donate to good causes.
This is why I say that donations require compassion, and doing good also requires exercising wisdom, not appeals to indiscriminate emotion, so that the government’s original economic stimulus measures can be realized as intended.
I believe that the government’s economic stimulus measures will promote wealth creation and social stability. Giving back to society is a good thing, but Taiwanese do not necessarily need to donate every time they receive money from the government, and how individuals choose to spend the cash payment depends on them and how they exercise their wisdom.
Liu Hsuan-hua
Taipei
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