Letters | Capitalist Hong Kong offers only two stark choices – wealth and poverty

While the poor struggle to find work and their hard-earned money earns almost no interest, asset holders make a fortune without labouring, even in a pandemic

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An elderly woman drags a trolley load of cardboard for recycling in Hong Kong on November 2, 2019. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:00pm, 7 Feb 2021Updated: 12:00pm, 7 Feb 2021

Paradise to the Left, Shenzhen to the Right, which was once a bestseller, depicted a rather gloomy love story set in a city which offered nothing but sheer hell for youngsters, who fell into the temptation of materialism, tarnishing their virtue and dashing their noble aspirations.

Fortunately, one can find both heaven and hell here in Hong Kong. Capitalism still dominates the market, which is, officially and theoretically, one of the most “open” in the world.

While the jobless rate hit a 16-year high, the Hang Seng Index reached 30,000 in January, one of its best performances during the pandemic. The wealth gap has widened since the implementation of quantitative easing and the lowering of the nominal interest rate to a historically low level to increase market liquidity.

In short, working consigns you to poverty as jobs disappear and salaries dwindle. Asset holders, who expect the value of money to depreciate over the long term, are the sure winners.

The United States is now sparing no expense to rescue its population from unemployment by printing more money. The process of raising the nominal interest rate, which would have given the poor a glimmer of hope, has halted.