Abstract

In Hong Kong, which is one of the highest GDP per capita cities in the world, the problem of poverty, particularly the housing of the poor, has been exacerbated as economic development has progressed. The received neocapitalistic view is that such poverty is an inevitable price for the economic growth which will eventually benefit everyone. In this essay, I criticize such view by examining how non-inclusive economic development in the past created barriers to inclusive economic development today. Through a comprehensive analysis of the housing problem in Hong Kong, I argue that these barriers, including not only physical constraints such as ownership and the lease of lands, housing prices and public housing policies, but also an ideological constraint adopted and advocated by the rich that regards poverty as a consequence of personal laziness and stupidity rather than a failure of the government, render the promise of the neo-capitalistic equality between rich and poor very difficult if not impossible to attain. I conclude that real equality can be attained only if we regard inclusive development as a necessary component of development from the beginning rather than a remedy for noninclusive development.