My Take | Greater equality would be a worthy cause for students to fight for

There is a straight line directly connecting Alexis de Tocqueville and the Gini coefficient measurement of inequality. The author of Democracy in America examines in depth two fundamental modern conditions: liberty and equality.

Some social scientists have claimed a correlation of high inequality (a Gini coefficient of above 0.5) with social tensions and unrest. If they are right, Hong Kong would serve as a good example. At 0.537, we are the highest among developed economies and on par with many developing economies or so-called banana republics.

The youngsters fighting police today are shouting for the right and freedom of universal suffrage, but they are more likely driven onto the streets by growing economic inequality and the conditions that create it in our society. Beijing would be far more receptive to arguments about inequality and social tensions than about “real” democracy and liberty. The Chinese ruling elites have themselves warned against their glowing dangers and the challenges they pose to the survival of the Communist Party.

While 1.3 million Hong Kong people live below the poverty line, 45 of our billionaires have a combined net worth of US$214 billion – equivalent to about 80 per cent of the city’s GDP last year. When even Li Ka-shing admits to losing sleep over Hong Kong’s widening inequality in wealth and opportunities, you know something is seriously amiss.

Perhaps student leaders should start developing a vocabulary to advocate greater equality and social justice, which can be translated into more equitable welfare and service programmes.

Some people wave the colonial flag because they idealise the British colonial era. But the Brits never gave us democracy or self-determination. What they did do in the 1960s through the 1980s was to enable booming conditions that helped lift all boats through a rising tide of economic opportunity.