How actually wealthy are Taiwanese?
It’s my fourth time in Taiwan and when wandering across the streets (mainly Taipei) and speaking with people, I cannot get a sense of how wealthy Taiwanese are compared to other countries.
For example, I always hear:
- Taiwanese companies pay huge bonuses at the end of the year, like one year full salary or even more if the company was very profitable.
- Taipei housing market is very expensive - but plenty of people live with their parents until they marry which means they have ~5 years of full savings until the moment comes to buy a house.
- Taiwanese seem to spend tons for discretionary spending, shopping for clothes, eating out, travelling, etc.
- A lot of young Taiwanese can study abroad with fees that usually cost +50k USD (at least). This means their parents have really managed to save a lot only for education. This would not be normal coming from Europe, none of my friends in my home country got such a large amount of money to study abroad for example.
On the other hand: - I see people, even at a very old age, keep working in low skilled jobs such as cleaners, shop clerks, etc, which makes me feel these people are poor and cannot afford to retire. - Data about GDP per capita is not that impressive for Taiwan, not comparable to most European countries for example, or Japan/Korea/HK.
Where does the truth lies? Is Taipei significantly wealthier than the rest of Taiwan similarly to London to the rest of the UK?