Question for Hong Kong is what kind of capitalism does society want
Must Hong Kong's traditional, predatory form always prevail over a more communitarian style?
Populist politics and socialism never took root in Hong Kong because the city's poor, workers and middle classes historically saw themselves not as exploited proletariat but as latent millionaires.
The Hong Kong government's political reform package and the larger issue of what constitutes democratic government in Hong Kong is really a question of what kind of capitalism does this society want. Must Hong Kong's traditional, predatory form of capitalism always prevail over an evolution to a more communitarian style that works towards the common interest?
While Occupy showed a part of society passionately believes that Hong Kong has lost its fulcrum, its balance of shared prosperity, there is a silent group that believes everything is perfectly fine. It is not a struggle for liberal democracy as much as a statement of what kind of capitalist system will define a town that has always been about business.
A significant segment of the local population isn't interested in the messy and uncertain outcomes of adversarial politics. Hong Kong Chinese are a particularly different type of Chinese compared to American, Canadian and mainland Chinese. Hong Kong society is obsessed with wealth and its symbols. There isn't much more to the Hong Kong psyche besides making money.
Long before the international art fairs descended upon the city, its only intellectual pursuits and outlets were horse racing, mahjong and two television stations. Hong Kong Chinese have historically distinguished themselves from other Chinese groups by being so intellectually narrow-minded that they understood very little about the world around them in spite of their prosperity.
Thus, there is a class of local professionals and businesspeople, above the age of 45, who stubbornly resist change in Hong Kong. In fact, some of them say that this is a society devoted only to business - love it or leave it. This demographic accepts the excesses and distortions that manifest themselves in the form of social injustice and obvious cartels that exploit every segment of the economy.