My Take | Li Ka-shing is right: young people need a way out
- A living wage, free university education and subsidised rents could help those trapped in city’s ongoing crisis have real stake in their own society
Li Ka-shing can’t open his mouth these days without inviting criticism. But the nonagenarian tycoon is not wrong this time when he says we need to find a way out for young people trapped in the ongoing crisis.
“For those at the helm,” he said, “we hope they can give the masters of our future a way out.”
Of course, we don’t know what that future will hold with such young people in charge! When they realise all that they have done amounts to nothing, that they are not fighting for their future but destroying it, they will become disillusioned. And these are not the ones facing potentially long jail terms. Hong Kong’s millennials will become a lost generation.
That’s why we need to offer them a good deal – to give those in legal trouble a way out; to incentivise those continuing the unrest to stop; and, for the long term, offer young people a real stake in their own society.
Mass prosecution and incarceration are not only costly by themselves, they present a high cost to society down the road, in terms of ruined lives and lost career opportunities.