The View | Democracy alone may not solve Hong Kong's ailments

The views of some of the student leaders of the Occupy movement and the pan-democrat politicians in Hong Kong are quite similar to the commentaries found in rich developed nations.

For example, as in Hong Kong, the Occupy Wall Street movement bemoaned rising inequality, the growth of government-business cronyism, and the inability of the political system to arrest these developments and correct them.

Many pan-democrats and occupation supporters here believe that at the very minimum, a more democratic political system in Hong Kong will be better able to tackle these social ailments.

It is not difficult to understand the source of these sentiments. In both the US and Hong Kong, labour productivity has continued to rise over time but real median household incomes have become stagnant.

This phenomenon leads to rising economic inequality and sinking middle-income classes over time. There are multiple causes behind it.

First, technological change has created demand for highly skilled manpower, increasing wage gaps between more and lesser educated workers.