To really help the poor, Hong Kong needs to target the advantages enjoyed by the rich
Peg Yoc Hui Valdez says pro-poor schemes won’t narrow the wealth gap in society without efforts to also tackle the systematic exploitation of our free-wheeling free market that impoverishes people in the first place
“There is so much government-business collusion and inflation these days that we can’t even buy a catty of contaminated vegetables for HK$30,” Kwan said.
After talking about democracy, freedom of expression, unaffordable housing and elderly poverty – Kwan’s speech touched on a point that citizens have been less vocal about lately: the government’s siding with private corporate interests.
READ MORE: The Mong Kok riots are a wake up call about the widening wealth gap
The clearest manifestation of this is the lax regulatory framework that has allowed many of Hong Kong’s markets – utilities, electronics, groceries, real estate – to be dominated by duopolies or monopolies. Since many of Hong Kong’s largest conglomerates are family controlled – Chow Tai Fook Enterprises by the Cheng family, Sun Hung Kai Properties by the Kwok family, and CK Hutchison Holdings by Li Ka-shing, for instance – these business empires have further concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a precious few. The richest 10 per cent of Hong Kong people own 77.5 per cent of its wealth, according to a Credit Suisse study cited in a 2015 Oxfam report.
Some lawmakers who felt the measures did not go far enough said Tsang should also have waived public housing rent. But even such a subsidy would only provide short-term relief for poor households. Instead of worrying about how to give HK$30 to a family so they can afford a “catty of contaminated vegetables”, what politicians and the public should be discussing is how to eliminate Hong Kong’s supermarket duopoly, the reason basic daily needs are so overpriced in the first place.