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Donating to the new care fund?

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  1. #31

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    With respect given to you Jay Kay, how is whats happening in Hong Kong, any different from western countries ?

    Our family home located in an inner city bay side suburb of Melbourne (15 minutes drive from the CBD ), was once a very working class area 40 - 100 years ago, now it is an upper middle class area where the median house prices are well over $1 million AUS, for a modest 3 bedroom fully restored Victorian/Edwardian Federation home. Today s working class/lower socio economic groups now all live out in the outer northern / western suburbs 45 minutes - 1 hour drive away from the CBD.

    Paris is the same if one compares central Paris property prices to outer area's ( 40 minutes drive from central ) like Moussey Le Neuf, Moussey Veux or Roissy, ( Very affordable housing out there ) and I am sure exactly the same pattern has taken place in London, and Harlem in New York City, where previously poor neighbourhoods have been bought up by yuppy dinks, who have bought all of the renovators delights.

    Pricing poorer demographics out of the hip inner city neighbourhoods is not mutually exclusive to Hong Kong, it is the same in every first world city.

    Last edited by Skyhook; 18-10-2010 at 05:40 PM.
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  2. #32

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    I agree it's not just the fault of the PD, although their tight grip on Donald's (and a few others) gonads certainly doesn't help matters either.

    But let's face it this fund to them was the better of 2 evils. The first was raising corporation tax which would have cost them xxx billions of dollars, the second was contributing to an investment fund as a one off. Only returns on this fund will be used to assist the poor - so a few hundred million per year if it performs. Once you take fund managers fees, etc let's see what's left.

    So it's a little bit smoke and mirrors here and let's been really, really honest here. Over the years there has been the trumpeting of this scheme, of that scheme. Pretty much most of them have been shambolic failures. What makes this one any different? How can you convince anyone that this will not go the way of those before? You may not agree with the scepticism but it's hardly as if the government haven't bought it on themselves.


  3. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by jaykay:
    I agree it's not just the fault of the PD, although their tight grip on Donald's (and a few others) gonads certainly doesn't help matters either.

    But let's face it this fund to them was the better of 2 evils. The first was raising corporation tax which would have cost them xxx billions of dollars, the second was contributing to an investment fund as a one off. Only returns on this fund will be used to assist the poor - so a few hundred million per year if it performs. Once you take fund managers fees, etc let's see what's left.

    So it's a little bit smoke and mirrors here and let's been really, really honest here. Over the years there has been the trumpeting of this scheme, of that scheme. Pretty much most of them have been shambolic failures. What makes this one any different? How can you convince anyone that this will not go the way of those before? You may not agree with the scepticism but it's hardly as if the government haven't bought it on themselves.
    This I agree with Jay Kay. And I am also skeptical but I am not shooting it down (yet). For once Donald is moving (a very very tiny move I agree, but still a move) in a very new direction for him. let see what happen. I was not born yesterday and I do not believe the fund will solve all problems and we will all love happy ever after. I am just against implying the fund is bad just because it is funded partly by PD.

  4. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyhook:
    With respect given to you Jay Kay, how is whats happening in Hong Kong, any different from western countries ?
    Skyhook, I hear what you are saying BUT what is different is the pace and size of population movement.

    What happens in Melbourne, London, Paris or any other city of that type is a gradual change, almost an evolution. What happens in HK is immediate, one day a public housing estate is there, next it's empty and people are dispersed all over. And not just a few people, there can be 10's of thousands in some of these estates. Whole communities don't get wiped out like that in the other cities mentioned.
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  5. #35

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    Mat, if this scheme is accepted, then it is essentially putting the stamp of approval on the developers' ripping off of the populace, and the latter will continue.


  6. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by bookblogger:
    Mat, if this scheme is accepted, then it is essentially putting the stamp of approval on the developers' ripping off of the populace, and the latter will continue.
    We all have, in one way or another, been accepting it for as long as we have lived in HK unfortunately.

    As I said earlier, 1Mio ppl took the streets when it really mattered to them. let's not forget also that thousands of ppl are working for those PDs, Real Estate Agencies....it is their bread and butter.

  7. #37

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    For the first time I'm wondering whether it's time to leave Hong Kong. It seems the developers have won. They already own everything and no one else can compete. All that remains is for them to mop up.


  8. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by bookblogger:
    For the first time I'm wondering whether it's time to leave Hong Kong. It seems the developers have won. They already own everything and no one else can compete. All that remains is for them to mop up.
    Nobody never wins. sometime the ppl get more, sometime the business get more...there is no ultimate winner.

    But thinking that this gvt is bad because it is closed to big business...well sorry folks it is the same in all countries.

    I despise the PD and hate the way the business is handled here but bashing the funds simply because of this and saying that the PD are the one responsible for the Cage home ppl is simply being dishonest.

    This is not black and white, and as I have said god knows how many times, many factors have created that situation.

  9. #39

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    Hong Kong Style

    I don’t want to live in a country that thinks there is any virtue in making a profit out of the sick and dying.
    And I don’t want to live in a country were the elderly and retired, after working all their adult lives, are treated like a burden.
    Hong Kong is the only place in the world that sends its working class elderly to live in hen cages and the population is so weak and submissive that they don't do anything about it. Singapore is much better.
    So sad.

  10. #40

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    For some big picture context for the lively discussions above :-), here's a link to a Foreign Correspondence Club talk on changes in poverty in HK.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MegqRMH20LU

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