Dear Editor,
After reading "Lin Yi-fu, At Least Give Taiwan an Apology" and "Money and Power Games of the Supermedia" in the August 2002 overseas English edition of Sinorama, I was pleased to see that in the midst of a society in which so many people worship at the altar of commerce and money, there were still many who would not sacrifice their principles for fame and fortune.
However, have we considered the positive impact on Taiwan of the global economic slump? In the wake of the Asian financial crisis, real estate prices in Taiwan have plummeted just as they have in Hong Kong. While this has been painful for many apartment owners, it has also been a boon to those who don't yet own their own homes, the so-called "snails without shells." Similarly, many people are concerned about the number of Taiwanese business people who are moving overseas. But isn't this outflow helping to alleviate Taiwan's overpopulation problem?
When the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up from 7,000 points to 9,000 points several years ago, many in the financial community predicted a coming market collapse. They didn't anticipate that the NASDAQ would rocket skyward, too. The market boom left everyone, young and old, male and female, rich and poor, feeling that they had to invest in stocks. Those without money of their own even borrowed funds with which to pursue their dream of wealth.
At its most basic level, the stock market is a place where companies go to acquire capital to expand their businesses. With stock prices skyrocketing, to avoid disappointing investors, managers invested ever more in increasing production capacity. This eventually created so much excess capacity that even firms that had been making money began losing money. When the market was rising, fund managers and individual investors celebrated with champagne. When the market collapsed, capital evaporated and fund managers lost their jobs. Many Americans who had all of their pension money in mutual funds and stocks were suddenly left facing a much more difficult retirement. When the CEOs of major American corporations such as Enron and WorldCom, who had so recently been celebrated for their contributions to the economy, cause such harm to the economy, how can we not feel anxious and scared?
Sinorama has many times reported on the government's intention to develop a "knowledge-based economy" and to foster the development of the so-called "twin star" industries-digital content and biotechnology. But relative to other countries, do these fields offer Taiwan the competitive advantage that a successful business strategy requires? If we already trail other nations in these areas, is it going to be possible to beat them?
In the past, Taiwan did a much better job of preserving Chinese culture than did mainland China. When teaching Chinese to Australian students, I always enjoy introducing my Western students to Chinese paper cutting, macrame and calligraphy. If Taiwanese were to spread the word about their cultural inheritance, it would create even more global business opportunities than did the South Korean national football team's final-four finish in the World Cup.
