Four a.m. queues at Taoyuan Airport have become a Taiwanese routine. In the first half of 2026, 10.65 million residents flew abroad, nearly 40% to Japan, while only 4.29 million visitors came in, widening the tourism deficit; the 2025 full-year gap is estimated to have drained NT$701 billion. Why do people rather fly out? This video skips the slogans and dissects Taiwan through ten of the most keenly felt pain points: repeated price hikes on lunch boxes, breakfasts and bubble tea against stagnant wages; the 10% restaurant service charge and minimum-spend time limits; theme parks with inflated pricing; opaque parking and assorted fees in tourist areas; copy-paste old streets; absurd outlying-island and domestic airfares; concert ticket prices and scalpers; car buyers stripped layer by layer by the tax system; housing prices that raise costs for the whole society; and finally, holiday accommodation's compensatory pricing and room-blocking that milk locals dry. Contrasted with Japanese travellers turning to domestic trips, the data exposes a structural gap between price and value in Taiwan: too few holidays, too few inbound visitors, high costs and rents, ageing systems and opaque pricing. Government subsidies cannot repair trust. The answer is not one-off windfalls but rebuilding the brand and good faith: make pricing transparent, make weekday experiences worthwhile, and use the labour saved by automation to treat customers well. Only when we start valuing our own people will their footsteps be willing to stay on this island.