Poverty count makes budget surplus a joke
I watch Tycoon Talk regularly on TVB, where the host always says Hong Kong is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Our property and stock markets also give the same general impression.
I often see beggars, street sleepers, and elderly poor collecting cardboard boxes, newspapers, aluminium cans and beer bottles by the roadside, just to earn few dollars by selling these for recycling. All this while our wealthy city gets ready to post another huge budget surplus, this time close to HK$160 million.
The government only gives about HK$1,200 to residents over 70 as “fruit money”, no questions asked, and about HK$2,500 to the over-65s after a lot of questions. Adequate living allowance should be given to the needy, and then begging banned or treated as a crime for all (resident or tourist), like it is in Singapore.
Budget surplus can help free our elderly poor from financial prison in Hong Kong
Our last optimistic governor, Chris Patten, after considering Hong Kong’s economic growth, and regenerating capacity, proposed to introduce a social pension scheme, but had to give up the idea amid short-sighted opposition over sustainability.