6000 dollars! Fair or not fair!

There are already enough crooked logics around on this issue. Perhaps you don't mind adding one, just in case you don't find the following logical either. Our 150,000 foreign domestic helpers are making considerable contribution to Hong Kong. Why aren't they entitled to the 6000 dollars giveaway?

Many new migrants are also working very hard and contributing to our society. They take up jobs that few local people would like to do: long working hour, low-pay, tough-labour, unpleasant jobs. They fill our "nobody-wants" part of the labour market, and quietly accept a less-than-fair treatment. And they "need" help. Why aren't they entitled to the 6000 dollars handout?

Then, why would some local 18-year old university student get the 6000 bucks while his wealthy parents still support him with an iPhone in his pocket and an iPad in his school bag? What has he done to deserve it or does he "need" this money? [Of course, there are many university students from low-income families who do need help, and so I am not generalizing it.]

Fair or unfair? The 6000 dollars to the low-income group is for buying necessities, and for the middle-class group, it's a choice between an iPhone or a high-end Android gadget. Okay, the wealthier could have paid more tax over the years, but our society is such a tightly coupled network, and you take for granted that you can live a comfortable life by maltreating other people and you don't even know that you're doing it! When public money is given away, we need more justice than fairness.

Being a local person and having witnessed the development of our city in the past 40 years, with "migrants" and their next generations from diversified regional backgrounds (Chao Zhou, Hokkien, Shunde, Hakka, Shanghai, etc.) supporting each other to make what Hong Kong is today, I used to be optimistic that most members of our society were not putting up with the divisive move that some selfish individuals were trying to promote here. Well, perhaps, as society develops, its own identity emerges and strengthens, erring on the side of protecting its "own people" and rejecting "outsiders" would be a natural course of development. The question is how well our education can resist the deteriorating value that divides people and weakens our potential to succeed in the competitive world.

The sad thing is that Hong Kong has now got the key ingredients to perish: foolish policy makers and a whole bunch of irresponsible lawmakers, plus a sizable group of blind and selfish public.

March 9, 2011