4 ms·

I guess HK has no social housing? The free market has no ethics or compassion so the government has to make rules.

baybal2 8y ago
It has, and a lot (in comparison to America.) Just not enough for everybody. Believe me or not, some of those 50-60 storey high apartment blocks have double digit vacancy rates, being bought as investment property. There are multiple laws imposing symbolic taxes on vacant flats, but even they are not enforced.
- baybal2 8y ago
  Once on my memory, HK govt had a crazy idea to "dump all homeless people to Shenzhen," but they were given middle finger by previous mayor, (one that went in front of firing squad.) with a dismissive comment "send your millionaires instead"
ksec 8y ago
And HK has been voted Number 1 in Free Market trading for god knows how many consecutive years. >I guess HK has no social housing? HK has social housing. But they have been building very little of it. The government skewed numbers for time from application to moving in are 7+ years. In reality it is even longer than that. The Social Housing unwritten rules are prioritised to anyone coming from mainland china first, then families in HK, and finally singles. So if you are some elderly singles, you are very likely to be dead before moving into a social housing. Now of course any singles getting any job with minimum wages you would have been over qualified for Social Housing. But a lot of times they are not full time job, and even if you do, you can barely afford to paid the rent of apartments. And even if you can, your landlord are highly unlikely to rent to these people without stable income. So you can live on the street right, like Homeless people? Well actually living on Street or what's called public space is against the law in HK.
ralusek 8y ago
Free markets are not devoid of ethics. They function in large part on trust, accountability, competence, loyalty, liberty, determination, etc... Of course there are perverse elements, but so too is the case with the state.
- shodan666 8y ago
  There are no ehtics in free market. Free market is simple: strongest(most ammo, power or capital) takes it all.
- phobosdeimos 8y ago
  Well lets put it this way: thanks to the government I have a bathroom and kitchen. Slumlords don't need to get re-elected.
  - ralusek 8y ago
    You cannot thank the government without thanking the people that pay the government.
robjan 8y ago
There's a lot of public housing but it's not very well managed and a lot of people cheat the system. Once you have a public flat you can pretty much keep it forever and pass it around within the family which means that it's not uncommon to walk past a public housing estate with Ferraris, Bugatti Veyrons and other exotic sports cars in the car park.
- baybal2 8y ago
  The city totally lives up to its popular culture image. https://imgur.com/a/7GYHQcX https://imgur.com/a/7GYHQcX
em500 8y ago
It has an very large social housing sector (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Hong_Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Hong_Kong). Almost half of all the houses / households are subsidized. Housing is the least "free market" part of the Hong Kong economy.

It has, and a lot (in comparison to America.) Just not enough for everybody. Believe me or not, some of those 50-60 storey high apartment blocks have double digit vacancy rates, being bought as investment property. There are multiple laws imposing symbolic taxes on vacant flats, but even they are not enforced.

baybal2 8y ago
Once on my memory, HK govt had a crazy idea to "dump all homeless people to Shenzhen," but they were given middle finger by previous mayor, (one that went in front of firing squad.) with a dismissive comment "send your millionaires instead"

ksec 8y ago

And HK has been voted Number 1 in Free Market trading for god knows how many consecutive years. >I guess HK has no social housing? HK has social housing. But they have been building very little of it. The government skewed numbers for time from application to moving in are 7+ years. In reality it is even longer than that. The Social Housing unwritten rules are prioritised to anyone coming from mainland china first, then families in HK, and finally singles. So if you are some elderly singles, you are very likely to be dead before moving into a social housing. Now of course any singles getting any job with minimum wages you would have been over qualified for Social Housing. But a lot of times they are not full time job, and even if you do, you can barely afford to paid the rent of apartments. And even if you can, your landlord are highly unlikely to rent to these people without stable income. So you can live on the street right, like Homeless people? Well actually living on Street or what's called public space is against the law in HK.

ralusek 8y ago

Free markets are not devoid of ethics. They function in large part on trust, accountability, competence, loyalty, liberty, determination, etc... Of course there are perverse elements, but so too is the case with the state.

shodan666 8y ago
There are no ehtics in free market. Free market is simple: strongest(most ammo, power or capital) takes it all.
phobosdeimos 8y ago
Well lets put it this way: thanks to the government I have a bathroom and kitchen. Slumlords don't need to get re-elected.
- ralusek 8y ago
  You cannot thank the government without thanking the people that pay the government.

robjan 8y ago

There's a lot of public housing but it's not very well managed and a lot of people cheat the system. Once you have a public flat you can pretty much keep it forever and pass it around within the family which means that it's not uncommon to walk past a public housing estate with Ferraris, Bugatti Veyrons and other exotic sports cars in the car park.

baybal2 8y ago
The city totally lives up to its popular culture image. https://imgur.com/a/7GYHQcX https://imgur.com/a/7GYHQcX

em500 8y ago

It has an very large social housing sector (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Hong_Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Hong_Kong). Almost half of all the houses / households are subsidized. Housing is the least "free market" part of the Hong Kong economy.