Eating at a breakfast shop the other day, I turned to an old man sitting at the table next to mine.
“Hey, did you hear that the Legislative Yuan passed a bill to give everyone NT$10,000 [US$340]?” I said, pointing to a newspaper headline.
The old man cursed, then said: “Yeah, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] canceled the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co and announced they would give everyone NT$10,000 instead.
“Nice. Now they are saying that if electricity prices go up, we can just use that cash to pay for it,” he said. “I have no time for drivel like that.
“And if electricity prices go up, so will the cost of manufacturing and raw materials. Then, things such as soy milk, milk, egg pancakes and food will all get more expensive,” the man said.
“Spending NT$30 more each day adds up to an extra NT$10,950 per year; an extra NT$40 per day would make it NT$14,600 a year,” he added.
“So by that logic, getting this extra NT$10,000 is not worth it,” I said.
“There’s a saying in Taiwanese — ‘trading rice for sweet potatoes.’ Essentially, a bad deal,” he said. “To dodge the recall, the KMT is using taxpayers’ money to fork out NT$10,000 to all citizens. Do they take us all for fools?”
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became.
I sighed, saying that by passing the special bill to distribute the handouts, legislators had technically contravened Article 91 of the Budget Act (預算法), which requires that they first seek comment from the Executive Yuan.
“So it is fundamentally illegal,” I said. “They also didn’t explain where the money would come from. It is beyond frustrating.”
The old man concluded by saying that he was going to tell his son, who lives in Taipei, to vote “Yes” on July 26.
“Reckless legislators must be recalled,” he said.
Yeh Yu-cheng is a civil servant.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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