Lol.Original Post Deleted
My comment is not political. I just hate billionaire monopolies. Especially billionaires in HK. They inflate their wealth by monopolizing needs instead of creating added value. Unlike Bill Gates or Elon Musk.
Lol.Original Post Deleted
My comment is not political. I just hate billionaire monopolies. Especially billionaires in HK. They inflate their wealth by monopolizing needs instead of creating added value. Unlike Bill Gates or Elon Musk.
Hong Kong's land resources are limited yet essential to people's lives, and this is an industry that should not be left to the free market. This kind of old-fashioned and inflexible market operation is the root of Hong Kong's misfortune planted decades ago.
When limited resources are often given to a few real estate tycoons, it is not a fully competitive market economy, but an oligopoly.
Singapore also lacks land resources, but the Singaporean government is much more far-sighted than Hong Kong and knew early on that the real estate industry had to be regulated.
Last edited by nivek2046; 09-11-2021 at 12:29 PM.
I always think that Hong Kong should follow the example of Singapore, where the government should be fully involved in the real estate market. The government could even become the biggest developer and get most of the profits.
This is just like the principle of MTR in Hong Kong, which uses the development of properties above the railway stations to drive the profit appreciation of the surrounding industrial chains, so that MTR can maintain cheap fares and the enterprises can still maintain high profits, unlike the MRT systems in foreign cities which have to operate at a loss.
But if the government does this, it will be competing with Hong Kong's property tycoons for profits, which will change the political ecology of Hong Kong's long-standing cooperation between business and government. But after 2019, I don't think anything is impossible.
Last edited by binance345; 09-11-2021 at 12:57 PM.
The Basic Law Article 50 says "The socialist system and policies shall not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years." The tycoons often use this to justify their actions.
But the crony capitalism now practising in Hong Kong is abusive (to say the least) and anti-competitve. If the Central People's Government along with HKSAR government were to work together to end the abusiveness, i do not think it is a breach of Article 50 of the Basic Law.
The only thing holding the government back from taking actions against the crony capitalism is that once the exodus of tycoons begins, there will be two questions: (1) who will replace them? the SOE enterprises from China? (2) if not, the HKSAR government themselves?
Last edited by nivek2046; 09-11-2021 at 01:07 PM.
It's not really possible unless the government gives massive rebates to people who have paid the biggest tax bill of their life in the form of their property.
Otherwise anyone who has bought a flat within the past few decades has indirectly paid a huge land premium plus whatever additional taxes are levied. Any tax on the rich will destroy one of HK's biggest advantages and any other tax will squeeze the middle class who already carry a heavy burden.