Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's policy address this year registered a higher approval rating than those in the past two years, according to the University of Hong Kong's survey of public opinion. The reason is simple: he has the right focus - targeting housing, the wealth gap, and elderly welfare as the key livelihood issues to be tackled, though critics fault him for not doing enough.
Having gone through the post-1997 Asian financial crisis and the most recent global financial turmoil, and with the threat of a currency war and a possible double-dip recession hanging over us, Hong Kong cannot afford to ignore the growing contradictions in our economic, social and demographic structures. These, if not given serious attention, will aggravate social discontent and instability, feeding political tensions and despair.
The widening wealth gap, which has led to 'anti-rich' and 'anti-business' sentiments in certain sectors of society, is not only the result of sky-rocketing property prices and unscrupulous business practices that some blame on property developers.
It has more to do with our economy. Hong Kong's strong position as a global financial and investment centre is no doubt doing great service to wealth creation, but it also drives up the costs of living - and incomes and wealth at the upper end - while low-income workers see little prospect of moving up the wage ladder or sharing the fruits of economic growth.
It is all very well to say that employment can lift people from poverty and that education can promote social mobility and alleviate inter-generational poverty. Such conventional wisdom, which worked well in previous decades, is increasingly challenged by the harsh reality of life today. Despite having a job and trying not to depend on social security, many low-income families simply cannot make ends meet. In-employment poverty is becoming a pressing problem.
Despite our young generation being better educated, with greater access to university education, their higher qualifications often fail to be reflected in their incomes. A lot of university graduates find they cannot aspire to home ownership given their limited and uncertain incomes and soaring property prices.
This is part of the growing discontent of the so-called post-1980s generation who see a widening discrepancy between educational attainment and career achievement. The M-shaped society that Kenichi Ohmae used to describe Japan after the bursting of its economic bubble in the 1990s looks increasingly true of today's Hong Kong. The middle class, who used to be the mainstay of an upbeat Hong Kong, is fast turning frustrated and pessimistic about the future.