One of the most disturbing events in the past week was the late Covid-19 diagnosis of a woman who had been to her private doctor three times and been told to go home. Readers might be surprised that a Hong Kong-registered doctor did not suspect she had the coronavirus. She is the first confirmed case in a new cluster , with others facing quarantine and hundreds requiring testing. When she was finally taken to hospital, nearly unconscious, she had to be ventilated. We all wish her a full recovery and hope her employer generously compensates her for the workplace hazard she faced. She worked night shifts at Kerry Logistics’ warehouse in Kwai Chung, labelling pre-packaged fruit and vegetables. Two other women at the warehouse who also tested positive had been sick a month earlier; their 25 colleagues are now in quarantine. That makes perhaps 28 people working round the clock, risking their lives in this dead-end, useless, unnecessary, unproductive and soul-destroying job. The labels, as we know, are required by the government on all imported consumables. They carry the same information as the packaging and are often creased, folded or illegible, obscuring more critical instructions and dosage information. These workers are working an overnight job, struggling to put food on the table, perhaps when the children can be looked after at home. It’s not hard to guess they probably don’t earn much more than the minimum wage, a paltry HK$37.50 an hour which our leaders believe is adequate. And all because some overpaid civil servant decreed that labels should be placed on imported products – even if the products come from high-quality sources. To Hong Kong policymakers: step outside and feel the sting of poverty How do we even know the information is correct? Why not put a QR code on the product? Why are only ingredients and not the product description itself labelled? Of course, the permanent and pensionable jobsworth who thought up this inane task may argue that the jobs created bring in a few much-needed dollars to unskilled workers and desperate families. However, as an extremely wealthy city , we have to do much better than that. The government is nowhere near developing worthwhile jobs for the population by launching committees which pay the same unimaginative has-beens to write reports and spend money on ineffective projects. Those in authority are too comfortable to understand the plight of the poorest 20 per cent . It has been a turbulent year since a million people marched in Hong Kong on June 9 last year. It is hard to remember that the narrative put forward for this movement, as for Occupy Central in 2014, was that young people felt they had no real hope, no job opportunities, and no chance to leave home without being crushed by the costs of merely living. Their cries went unheard by our last two wealthy, cloth-eared chief executives who, in the air-conditioned seclusion of Government House, compounded the problem by ineptly handling the discontent. A wilful misunderstanding of the issues turned economic problems into a political crisis. Cartels were allowed to run wild, while public money was spent on white elephant infrastructure projects. The coronavirus is exposing the divisions between the haves and have-nots , even as global central banks print money to prevent recession, but that will ultimately make the rich richer. When that policy explodes, young people will lose their jobs anyway. Hong Kong is the eighth most unequal society in the world (according to the World Population Review website), with a Gini coefficient of 0.539 . How Covid-19 could provoke a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism The Gini scale ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (one person owns everything). The rampantly capitalist United States (0.45) is actually less unequal than communist China (0.465), which is itself more unequal than the developed market economies of Britain (0.324), Australia (0.303) and Germany (0.27). The liberal-capitalist, democratic welfare state of Europe was born out of two world wars, which destroyed faith in the ability of powerful men to lead in the interests of others. The riots in Hong Kong, and in the US now , have been exacerbated by wealth and opportunity inequality. In the US, the racial divide and leadership have further divided people. At least our young people did not resort to looting jewellery shops. There is much Schadenfreude in China about the rioting in Washington – but remember that in China, police would take a very dim view of anyone recording their operations. Unfortunately, the past week has shown how governments in any country are unlikely to do much to correct the wealth inequalities that have undoubtedly expanded as a result of the coronavirus lockdowns. Investors should be prepared for more civil disobedience, protests, riots, flashpoints, divisions and indeed threats to the status quo. Solutions range from forcing equality by regulatory or fiscal means, or firing live rounds into discontented crowds. The first is a lasting solution; the second will foment more discontent. Investors should maintain their exposure to equities, especially those related to tear gas – and the street antidote, milk. Richard Harris is chief executive of Port Shelter Investment and is a veteran investment manager, banker, writer and broadcaster, and financial expert witness