It is So Much Easier To Be Frugal in Taiwan!
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Hi everyone! I am very tired right now since my visit in Taiwan has been “event-packed” but I want to tell everyone about my trip. I found that Taiwan and United States has a very different living standard! For example, I had a very nice dinner (Japanese Hot Pot, also called Shabu Shabu) that cost $15 USD (tax and tips included) while something similar in the states would cost me $30-40 dollars.
Two of the big difference with prices are that you do not pay taxes nor tips here. Something that cost $10 is $10, not $10 plus tax. Also, when I go to a restaurant, I do not need to pay tips. This makes things so much simpler for the customer! It creates the burden on the business owner to figure all these out instead of asking the customer to calculate everything on every order, saving time.
Without taxes and tips, everything is still much cheaper here. It is amazing how business owners can still profit with prices this low but people here are still capable of making a lot of money. This makes me wonder if people in the United States are just not as efficient (myself included) with our complex government and our feeling of responsibility for the poor.
I know I might have opened a can of worms here, but comments are welcome and please keep a civil conversation if one were to start.
I will be back soon! I miss writing to you about personal finance!
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It is So Much Easier To Be Frugal in Taiwan! - Personal Finance on September 14th, 2007 at 10:10 am Says:
[...] is So Much Easier To Be Frugal in Taiwan! paidtwice wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI miss writing to you about personal [...]
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Why Only Thinking About Affordability Makes You Poor | No More Bad Debt on October 21st, 2008 at 10:06 pm Says:
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I’ve lived in a few different countries and have realized tipping to be very unique to North America. Because of my experiences I now come to regard servers who expect tips as very ungrateful. I still do tip although only 10% and I now have no hesitation to not leave a tip if the service was not good.
I also prefer the system in other countries too that the tax is always included in the price. You never notice the tax that way unless you look at the bill.
its the same in India. You usually leave 5-10 Rupee tip(about 10-20 cents worth) whether the bill is 200 rupees or 1000 rupees.
I’ve also been to several countries (I’m English) and tipping is very North American. There’s an ad for HSBC that comments on this as it shows a family in a restaurant in Iceland who are trying to put down sufficient tip, not realising that the waitress isn’t looking for more money, but is insulted by having a tip at all.
I imagine wages are lower in Taiwan compared to America if food costs are much lower. There aren’t many countries that have similar economies of scale to the USA for food.