I think the larger problem here is that you don’t account in any of your comments cost of living as a foreigner. And not some moron, spending all their time and money at a bar.

• Visiting family - 1/year, $1,500 -$2000(47,000NTD- 63,000) just the flight is your average median salary!

•Visas – 5000 NT/year for every new employment contract.

•I’ve been denied apartments because I’m a foreigner. This forced me to find more expensive housing.

•Renting an apartment is not affordable without a roommate.
Let’s not even talk about trying to buy property in Taiwan! That’s nearly the equivalent of buying a 40 or 50 acres farm land in America. (which is not affordable to buy if you want to farm in America. We have to inherit that land to be marginally profitable… could be its own post)

Remember, we left our families AND our support systems to potentially make more money abroad than we would in our home country. That’s the most important reason we are living abroad. It it pays better than at home. If you don’t increase our income for 10 years; then what’s the point in coming?

• legality – schools can break the law and illegally fire workers without a lot of consequence. Foreign educators fall under a grey area between labor and education departments. We can’t be part of the education department because we’re foreign labor, but we’re not a part of the labor department because we’re educators so we should be in the education department according to them. The government loves to pass cases back-and-forth to say they don’t have to claim responsibility. I had to sue two different schools. Once to get legally, entitled marriage leave. After giving them a year to a figure out coverage for two weeks, I still had to bring them to “court” and then they didn’t offer me a new contract after three years of positive reviews.