[Editor's Note] Danger: Overloading Can Lead To Loss of Control

The name of the economic game is "work." So said MIT professor Lester C. Thurow.

However, in Taiwan, work is not a simple matter of economics; it has, rather, invaded all facets of life. Because of it, Taiwan's birth rate is dropping faster than any other in the world; over 40% of Hsinchu Industrial Park engineers are said to be sterile; and a staggering number of families has one spouse living on either side of the Taiwan Strait. Work used to be one part of life. Its clutching, all-pervading tentacles have now become the curse of modern society.

In the IMD's 2003 World Competitiveness Report, Taiwanese led the world, working 2,282 hours each year. Why do Taiwanese work so hard? Taiwan's 24-hour stores, the most per capita on the planet, stand ready to meet the needs of the large number of individuals returning home late. Taiwan's news channels and publishing companies, also the most per capita in the world, inundate the public with an unremitting flood of information. Businesses, from the IT industry to home appliance and clothing retailers, are killing themselves and baffling consumers by promoting "new" models each season, despite their obvious similarity in appearance and function to earlier models. Year-round marketing campaigns, product launches, and official holidays are burning people out. Our exhilarating "firework society" doesn't accumulate anything of lasting value.

This is a high-tech, high-speed era of global competition. Our perceptions of time and space have changed dramatically. The media refers to "modern Genghis Khans," alluding to the conqueror who rewrote European history when his armies arrived at the gates of Urganch in Khorazm just a few months after leaving the great deserts of Mongolia. Businesspeople today zip around the globe at much faster speeds to "loot and pillage" cities as they expand their business territories. In today's global rat race, it is join or be eliminated.

But while Asia has only produced one Genghis Khan in the past 1,000 years, the casualty rate in global business is very high. In his expeditions, Genghis Khan captured incalculable treasures and established an empire. But what about the soldiers that followed him? They only wanted secure and peaceful lives. Could even the most handsome rewards truly compensate these conscripts for lost health and time away from their families?

Taiwan has already witnessed a great deal of discussion concerning the distortion and stress wrought on both humanity and lives by the modern workplace. But the situation has not only not been resolved, I'm afraid that it is expanding and worsening. Nobody, not white- or blue-collar worker, not government employee or teacher, not police, military, or medical personnel, has been left unscathed. Even street vendors and taxi drivers push themselves to work longer hours after feeling the pinch.

This issue is not restricted to Taiwan. But the nation and people of Taiwan have been overloaded like few others in the world today, because Taiwan has had to battle at close quarters with China, the world's newest and fiercest industrial titan; Taiwan's industries faced obstacles that make transforming and upgrading difficult; and over the past 20 years, mantras like "be the best in the world" and "no pain, no gain" have conditioned them.

We have selected the theme "Hardworking Taiwanese!" as this month's cover story, to awaken society to this issue. With the exception of a very few philosophic individuals who refuse, for ethical reasons, to demean themselves by joining the rat race, everybody else is left with no alternative but to do so. And as long as global competition continues at its current intensity, no end is sight for the high stress and long hours. And no amount of slogans will solve this problem. The media would be a good starting point, though. It could-and, for the sake of creating a healthier and more balanced nation, should-work to bring back proven values, break the curse of "work above all else," smash the myth of hard work invented by big business to brainwash society, and strive to not over-glorify "more," "better," and "richer."

I recall that a businessman once said that when he was with Matra of France, he worked overtime several days in a row to make a good impression. He never expected to receive a letter from the company which read, "We've noticed that you have exceeded the permitted number of working hours. In order to avoid breaking labor regulations, you are hereby asked to immediately desist from this." Yes, somebody should yell stop before we spin out of control!