Over the next 12 months the world will be celebrating the United Nations Year of the Elderly. Unfortunately, the signs are that Hong Kong, like much of Asia and some of the developed world, will treat its senior citizens with even less generosity this year than last.
In marches yesterday, groups of elderly protesters demanded not only increased services and shorter waiting times for retirement housing, but also a relatively substantial increase in Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) payments from $2,550 to $3,000. They deserve all that and more. A modern, wealthy society like Hong Kong - even one in the midst of a recession - should recognise the contributions the elderly have made over the course of their lives and see to it that their final years are not spent in poverty.
Yet the marchers are unlikely to get much of what they are looking for. The Government is keen to keep its CSSA costs to a minimum. With increases linked to the rate of inflation, the present period of deflation provides officials with the excuse to keep a tight lid on spending.
As the population ages, the cost rises for everything from providing housing to underwriting medical expenses. At the same time, a shrinking tax base makes it harder to fund the needs of those no longer able to support themselves.
This is not only true of Hong Kong, although the SAR's low tax regime certainly exacerbates the problem. The same demographic fact of life is being faced with far greater urgency in the West, Japan and a rapidly ageing China. Hong Kong has the advantage over its neighbours of an influx of future wage earners in the shape of the 150 new immigrants arriving from China each day. Many of them are young and will contribute more over the years. Yet there will still be fewer people of working age relative to the growing population and increasing needs of their parents' generation.
Nevertheless, although the Government has decided to limit social security payments to the unemployed and single mothers, so they will not be encouraged to become dependent on handouts, there is no such justification for refusing to support the elderly. Unless we intend to demand our old people go back to work and stay in harness until they die, society owes them a basic subsistence.
