HELP! Can someone answer some questions about Hong Kong economy?

[jab105]

Ok, the argument is that Hong Kong's economy is the Republican "ideal" for the US, very low taxes, not much government oversight/spending...

Does anyone have any good links about this...

I dont know anything about world economics...

I'm assuming that an answer would be that the US is not comparable to a place like Hong Kong and from what I've read, Hong Kong isn't doing that great as far as deficits right now (of course, their answer back to that is that it is because Hong Kong is starting to government spend again)...

Anybody can help with some links or explanations?

[uptohere]

1. I think its a stretch to compare a city to a large country

I'm not sure its worth the effort but feel free yourself.

[jab105]

3. Is Hong Kong just a city?

how bout that, population of less than 7 million, that helps...but they'll just say that we should be hong kong on a larger scale...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. It's quite urbanized, but it includes

some small islands and the so-called New Territories (actually the only part that was legally required to be returned to China in 1997), which are less densely populated. Basically, it's a city and its suburbs.

[uptohere]

7. pretty much just a city

and covered stem to stern with buildings. They had to make an island to be the airport.

We can't be Hong Kong. We have agriculture, a military, natural resources. Its apples to refrigerators.

Besides, its not the same anymore since it reverted to the People's Republic. They said they would leave it alone but they just couldn't resist.

[Don_G]

2. Pretty Much All I Know

Is that Hong Kong, while more "liberal" than the mainland is under Chinese Communist control and have been since the British gave it up.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I don't know the details, but I do know

that there were no free public schools. They all charged tuition. There were also tremendous differences between the rich and poor.

Hong Kong had a huge population explosion due to refugees from China during the famines and the Cultural Revolution during the 1960s. Since only people who were unhappy with China left, we can assume that there was a high percentage of entrepreneurial types in the population, not to mention the fact that China has a strong mercantile tradition in any case.

I wonder whether Hong Kong's economic model would work in a society where people weren't culturally conditioned to get the best education possibly regardless of the expense and to go start businesses.

[Romberry]

6. My suggestion...

Anyone that thinks Hong Kong is an economic paradise ought to move there. Hong Kong is a place of great wealth...and great poverty. It is a place of four star hotels...and crowded slums. It's a place of ubiquitous cell phones...and street vendors with rotted teeth.

My former wife is a native of Hong Kong. (Her family followed her father here when she was age 12.) My children are half Chinese. It is not for no reason that the working class of Hong Kong seeks to immigrate to America or Canada in large numbers.

If you want untested medicine that can kill you, "flame retardent" pajamas for your kids that will go up like a roman candle and a social safety net with holes so large that fully grown blue whales could swim through untouched, then Hong Kong is your place.

I absolutely loved the sights and sounds and smells of visiting that place (this was prior to the end of Britain's lease) but it is not somewhere I'd like to call home. FWIW, my former wife could not wait to leave as a child and after the third day back could not wait to leave as an adult.

Modern and educated in many ways. Dog eat dog in many others. No thanks.

[jab105]

8. Do you know anything about the economy of Hong Kong?

specifically?

[Romberry]

10. Do you have a specific question?

I gave specifics. Great disparity of wealth. A social safety net that is basically nonexistent. Crowded slums down the street from four star hotels. A populace that would by and large rather be somewhere else. Maybe I should talk about a tax system that does not tax any form of income from dividends and capital gains but does tax the wages of labor? (The only mitigating factor when it comes to such an inherently regressive system is that most workers in Hong Kong are too poor to be "burdened" with any income tax at all. Those "Lucky Duckies!")

If you are rich, Hong Kong is paradise. If you are poor, it is hell. Is that specific enough?

[jab105]

12. Yes...

that's what I needed, thanks it will help in my little debate:)

[MrPrax]

9. Like Macao or Singapore

city states with strong colonial backgrounds and in the case of HK and Macao (former Portugese colony) a huge amount of their city budgets are based on gambling!!!

That helps--and the toll bridges!! That helps too

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Although I believe Singapore has

a higher standard of living than Hong Kong and less economic inequality.