What Country Has It BetterThan the United States and Why?

[RollingWave]

Chris got me thinking...what country do you think has it better? I'll start off...a couple of places I've visited and have thought about living. Spain has 20% unemployment on the books, the reality is probably worse. The UK puts people in jail for tweeting offensive things about soccer players. So let's hear where things are better and why.

Wait they put ppl in jail for tweeting offfensive things about soccer player but not you know... burning cars in soccer riots ?

[Conley]

Wait they put ppl in jail for tweeting offfensive things about soccer player but not you know... burning cars in soccer riots ?

Yes, cars can be replaced but feelings are priceless.

[MMC]

Yes, cars can be replaced but feelings are priceless.

Been talking with a bunch of progressives.....have we, hmmmm?

[Conley]

Been talking with a bunch of progressives.....have we, hmmmm?

What's wrong with progress?

[MMC]

What's wrong with progress?

Well for one.....the Opposite, is Congress!

[RollingWave]

Well, Taiwan have some ways that are better off than the US... like...

A. Unemployement is falling below 5%.... and have never topped more than 6% in the last... umm... since anyone actually tracked the damn thing.

B. Instead of going broke, our post office is drowning in cash because it double as a bank.

C. We have abosalutely 0 foreign debt

D. Public debt isn't particularly high, espeically by the measure that all of it is domesticated (which if Japan is any guide, the tolerance level for pure domestic debt is much higher... )

E. A Public health system that most people are happy with.


Of course, the common median wage of a late 20s early 30s salary earner is only something like 1000 bucks here. and hasn't really moved (forward that is... most folks feel like it's moving backwards) since 10 years ago. though the exchange rate rising is a factor..

There's no paradise on earth that's for sure (though most of us can take solace in that... there is hell on earth, and we're not living in them.)

[wingrider]

yeah.. go Costa rica..

[MMC]

Hmmmmm looks like that place is surrounded by an ocean. Good thing you got like 100 peaks all over 3000ft. How far from the mainland? Oh and of course there is China.....eh RW? What did ya say the temperature is there. At night? Is there any winter weather? Typhoons and Monsoons.....huh?

Geography
Area: 36,189 sq. km. (13,973 sq. mi.).
Cities (December 2011): Capital--Taipei (2.65 million). Other cities--New Taipei City (3.91 million), Kaohsiung (2.77 million), Taichung (2.66 million), Tainan (1.88 million).
Terrain: Two-thirds of the island is largely mountainous with 100 peaks over 3,000 meters (9,843 ft.).
Climate: Maritime subtropical.


Economic Outlook

Taiwan faces many of the same economic issues as other developed economies. As labor-intensive industries have relocated to countries with low-cost labor, Taiwan's future development will rely on further transformation to a high technology and service-oriented economy and carving out its niche in the global supply chain. Taiwan's economy has become increasingly linked with China, and the Ma administration is expected to further develop these links and liberalize cross-Strait economic relations, particularly through negotiations under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). Taiwan official statistics indicate that Taiwan firms had invested about U.S. $110.9 billion in China as of the end of November 2011, which is more than 60% of Taiwan's stock of direct foreign investment. Unofficial estimates put the actual number at between U.S. $150 and over $300 billion. Exact figures are difficult to obtain, as much Taiwan investment in the P.R.C. is via Hong Kong and other third-party jurisdictions. More than one million Taiwan people are estimated to be residing in China, and more than 70,000 Taiwan companies have operations there. Taiwan firms are increasingly acting as management centers that take in orders, produce them in Taiwan, the mainland, or Southeast Asia, and then ship the final products to the U.S. and other markets.


Nice place to visit.

[Peter1469]

Well, Taiwan have some ways that are better off than the US... like...

A. Unemployement is falling below 5%.... and have never topped more than 6% in the last... umm... since anyone actually tracked the damn thing.

B. Instead of going broke, our post office is drowning in cash because it double as a bank.

C. We have abosalutely 0 foreign debt

D. Public debt isn't particularly high, espeically by the measure that all of it is domesticated (which if Japan is any guide, the tolerance level for pure domestic debt is much higher... )

E. A Public health system that most people are happy with.


Of course, the common median wage of a late 20s early 30s salary earner is only something like 1000 bucks here. and hasn't really moved (forward that is... most folks feel like it's moving backwards) since 10 years ago. though the exchange rate rising is a factor..

There's no paradise on earth that's for sure (though most of us can take solace in that... there is hell on earth, and we're not living in them.)

How much would your defense budget increase if the US lifted its shield of protection? How would that affect your economy?

[RollingWave]

mainland is about 110+ KM at the closet point IIRC. on average it's about 180km, so essentially close to a day's boatride, or about 1+ hour by plane, obviously quite close.

Tempature... its' basically 2 season, summer and... not summer... coldest it gets is about 9 degree C (50 degree ish F?) on sea level, though obviously some of the high peaks may snow occasionally. though for most of the season it's usually at least in the upper 70F and more likely in the 90degree F range... so yeah... it's pretty much a tropical island . though because most houses aren't heated here and it's wet even in winter AND most of us ride around on scooters so winters can still be annoying.

Taiwan is pretty terrible in terms of natural disastor, it'll basically earthquake every month and usually a pretty big one every couple year. and of course Typhoons comes in the bushels here. on average 3-4 typhoon a year. usually effecting the whole island. oh right did I meantion that some of those mountains are actually vocanos ? luckily there hasn't been any tracable eruoption in Taiwan in about a thousand years.

Taiwan also has the oddity of being a very rainy place but has just one semi navigable river. because the rain mostly fall in the high mountains and there's a very short distance between the origin to the mouth, most rivers have extreme variations, ranging from extremely shallow creeks when it's not raining to a monster when it is.. the degree of variation is pretty crazy.

(here's an example.. see that river in the back? that's what its like in non-raining time... and all that bedrock around it? that's what it's like when it rains hard.)