What's being said on facebook.com/southchinamorningpost
On the HK government's announcement of a new poverty line for the city, and report saying property prices in HK must drop 22 per cent in the next three years to return to "normal" affordability levels.
There have been more than 50,000 mainlanders entering Hong Kong every year since 1997 and settling here. Most of them are poor, so it is no surprise that the poverty problem has worsened rather than improved. The HK government must tackle the immediate problem first by putting a stop to the existing policy of allowing more and more mainlanders to come in freely.
The new official poverty line is not reliable. The welfare NGOs and local universities can make a poverty line that is real, academic and scientific.
Sure, there are people sleeping in "Cardboard City". However, if your household already has heavily government-subsidised accommodation and you have a few thousand dollars of income a month, you may be in the bottom quartile but that's hardly "breadline".