New answers to old questions Cheng Li-chen points out that Taiwan has a far lower poverty rate than countries with relatively good social welfare systems such as Britain, the US, Japan, and Sweden. The main reason is that Taiwan has very strict welfare entitlement criteria and sets a low poverty line to discourage people from sponging off others and prevent too many people from receiving welfare benefits.
舊題新解鄭麗珍指出，台灣的貧戶比例和其他社會福利較佳的英、美、日、瑞典相較，還遠遠瞠乎其後，究其原因，主要是我們的社會救助採嚴格標準、壓低貧窮線策略，以避免鼓勵不勞而獲，並防止過多人領取社會救助。