Why We Never Retire Here in Asia? By Tim I Gurung

In the early nineties, when my western friends and associates used to ask me for my next holiday or retirement plans, I used to kind of stutter my words, not knowing exactly what to reply next. The reason for that was simple! We had none and it was not uncommon. In fact, planning for holiday and retirement is still new to us here in Asia. It might be picking up gradually in big cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, and now in Shanghai and Beijing. People here definitely take regular holidays and also plan for retirement well ahead and in details. But I am talking about the majority of the ordinary people who still live in the villages and farmlands, where farming and keeping livestock are still the main sources of living.

Most of the developed countries where people have decent job, medical care and education facility, it is normal to have a good relaxing holiday after a hard good year work. With good governance and maintenance of public funds on top of basic infrastructure and system already well in placed, the continuity of the development of the society and people's livelihood is almost guaranteed. Higher taxation might be a burden for some but the cost of running a good system is also not cheap. It also pays for your pension!

In the contrary, we have almost the opposite here in Asia. People do get almost nothing from the nation. Yet, they still have to pay certain taxes here. Although it might be a small change for you people out there, but it can be a big burden for farmers whose only income is crops from his farmlands, not actual money. It is definitely not an easy task to turn them into actual money. The only way to get the hard cash is to sell his crops that would normally feed the whole family. Less crops means someone will go hungry in the coming winter. And in order to avoid that he has to work much harder than the previous year on his fields. The risk of the whole harvesting being completely wiped out by natural disasters like typhoon, drought, flooding, hell stone and landslides is always there. The cruelest part of all is that it is getting even harder by each year. There is simply no respite for the poor guy!

The families in Asia are rather closed and integrated within the society whereas in western countries they are more independent and also individual. People here in Asia, will have to look after, at least two generation back, to his father and grandfather and another two generation ahead, for his children and grand children. The same rule also applies to the woman side of the family too. On top of that if you are a big earner, the whole relatives will be in the lines for the handouts. In fact, in some cases, the whole village is belonged to the same family tree. And that is definitely not an easy task to make them all happy at the same time.

It is definitely the reason behind the closed family tradition in Asia, but for the same reason, it also became a baggage that you always have to carry on your back. It will go on and on until the day you will probably die. That is reason why we never think about retiring in Asia.

ISSL & CO., (HK) LIMITED has business interests as below:
manufacturing and exporting furniture-http://www.myissl.com
website publications-http://www.the-ordinary.com