Hong Kong government ignores growing wealth gap and social inequality at its own peril

I am writing in response to “Attention Hong Kong bureaucrats: venture outside your bubble to see how the rest of the city lives” (September 28).

Countless official reports and statistical analyses have demonstrated Hong Kong’s severe income disparity. Newspaper headlines bombard us with phrases like “intergenerational inequality”, “working poor”, “stagnant social mobility”, and “elderly poverty”. For instance, in “Call to tackle poverty with an extra HK$36.7b” (September 25), you point out that Hong Kong’s Gini coefficient – or wealth gap – is at its highest since the city began keeping records on income equality 45 years ago.

There is a deep-seated belief in Hong Kong that sufficient opportunities have been granted to the poor to improve their lives if they work hard. Such rhetoric is further reinforced by stories of the booming economy and trickle-down economics highlighted by the government and the business sector.

However, our city’s institutional designs guarantee the business sector the upper hand, when its interests and preferences are at odds with those of society as a whole. The sector enjoys special privileges in, and disproportionate influence over, the political system, such as in the Election Committee for the chief executive and their representation in the form of functional constituencies in the legislature.

Thanks to high-profile scandals among public officials, there is no abating the suspicion of government collusion with the business sector. Despite buzzwords like “positive interventionism” and “big market, small government”, the local government appears far from being a neutral coordinator.