Hong Kong as the Welfare Society - Case Study Example

Introduction Social justice: Social justice could be defined as the process by which a or a society accords equal rights and opportunities to all its citizens or members without prejudice or discrimination based on social status or on other discriminatory criteria (Braham 55). Social justice entails that the State or society should provide for her citizens basic social amenities, social infrastructures, housing, education and other requirements that may be evenly distributed across all social strata. Social injustice is rampant in some societies/countries where citizens are unable to have access to various social infrastructures, and they are incapable of acquiring the necessary amenities that could have made their lives better. This essay would be considering Hong Kong as the welfare society. In the late 80s Hong Kong fully assumed the status of a welfare society as the country took a giant stride to provide housing, education and social infrastructure to all her citizens irrespective of their social status. Recently, Hong Kong affordable Housing policy for all her citizens has attracted much praise, even from other long-existing social States. The Housing Policy was able to provide shelter for poor families and drastically reduce their exposures to danger, crime and other harmful circumstances. 1. Thesis Although pure capitalism does lead to inequality, through taxes and other social policy interventions its difficulties can be alleviated through mixed, democratically guided political measures. 2. Argument for the thesis As a previous British Colony, Hong Kong finds itself trapped between two ideologies: the British capitalism and the traditional Chinese communism (Callick 10). By economic outlook, Hong Kong teeters towards British Capitalism, most especially in the 70s during the colonization and in the 90s after the colonization. By social construction, most people in Hong Kong could feel the impacts of Chinese communism as the British officially handed over the country to China on June 30, 1997 (Callick 11). But these circumstances have not prevented Hong Kong from actively practicing true capitalism. However, the Hong Kong government has some checks and balances that regulate its economic activities to avoid inequality that could bring tension among her citizens (Atkinson 93). Hong Kong adopts the following strategies: (i) High Taxes: The rich in Hong Kong pays the highest taxes, compared with what the middle and working classes pay. This practice tends to leverage the overbearing financial influence of the wealthy individuals within Hong Kong society. Hong Kong government realizes so much money from these taxes and channels these resources to providing basic social amenities and housing to the poor families. The statistics reveals that out of about 7 million people in Hong Kong, 17.7 percent are classified as poor. Therefore, it requires the contributions from the rich, in form of taxes, to level the discrepancies and generate enough revenues for the government to fund several society-centered programs. The issue of taxpaying is so serious in Hong Kong that any tax evaders may spend the rest of his/her life in the prison. (ii) Business regulations: Hong Kong government has series of laws and rules that guide business operations to prevent unfair practices among business owners with the intention of maximizing profits. These regulations work against fraud, improper manipulations of prices and other unfair trade competitions. By doing so, Hong Kong attempts to create a situation of fairness between the small and big companies. This is a sharp contrast to what is happening in the nearby Macau, where business regulations are shoddy and relaxed: And business owners could manipulate labor laws and government policies to fulfill their thirst for more profits. (iii) Employment laws: Workers in Hong Kong are duly protected by laws against the selfish actions of discriminatory and unpatriotic employers. All the benefits belonging to a worker are well spelt out in Hong Kong’s labor laws. This would hinder unkind employers from single-handedly maltreating their workers. And, in case there are circumstances of abuse at the workplace, the employees are supported by laws to seek a legal redress. It is a known phenomenon that employers tend to override the statutes of labor laws and oppress their workers so as to maximize their gains from such unfair business operations; however, Hong Kong’s no-nonsense labor regulations give no room for such untoward practices. Hong Kong workers are duly protected. (iv) Community services: In Hong Kong, established businesses are usually persuaded to participate in community services. In essence, they are implored to give back to the society that has made them rich. Governmental institutions are set up to manage the funds donated by the rich. There are institutions that oversee educational, recreational and health activities mainly sponsored by money from the rich companies. In recent years, Hong Kong government has been able to reach out to other poor countries in its neighborhood utilizing the funds that have been collected from Hong Kong businesses. The increase in health programs sponsored by rich members of the society has helped the government save its resources to do the same thing for the Hong Kong people. 3. Anti-Thesis: Best argument against (a) It is worthy of mentioning that capitalism isn’t always a bad economic practice; it also has several positive impacts on society. In the case of Hong Kong, the following facts depict the real nature of capitalism in the country: Job creation: Capitalism is an economic drive that gives rise to the establishment of companies that create jobs for ordinary citizens to survive (Chan 20). In this way, it provides sources of income for families to depend on. However, there may be some instances when companies breach the labor laws, but the benefits derived from capitalism by the society definitely surpassed the negative impacts. The business cycle in Hong Kong operates like a family: this means that they work cooperatively with one another. Therefore, big companies help the smaller ones to grow, and then this attitude is instrumental to the creation of multiple jobs through the process of establishing several small-scale industries. This is purely capitalism in action. Legal regulations: Capitalism has laws or rules that guide its economic activities, even in Hong Kong (Sennett 35). Companies are prevented from evading taxes: Hong Kong laws have huge penalties for tax evaders. Also, there are laws that disallow the evil practice of monopoly. Price regulatory bodies handle the prices of commodities so as to provide fair competition among the companies, whether small or big. Another aspect of the laws prevents fraud and all its related offences. Companies could not freely engage in business frauds which include but not limited to stock trading fraud, credit fraud, accounting fraud and so on. This fact supports the belief that capitalism, though money-centered, has some moral obligations it fulfils towards the State and the public. Hong Kong is famous for decency and the capability to act according to biding agreements or business laws when dealing with other countries. This comes from many years of constantly obeying the local Hong Kong laws. Wealth creation and distribution: The vestige of British capitalism hasn’t completely disappeared from Hong Kong’s business cycle, even though the country is embracing China’s type of neo-capitalism. In Hong Kong there are still traditional trading companies, housing estate companies and book publishing businesses. Capitalism encourages top-down wealth distribution, unlike communism or socialism that supports random wealth distribution. Capitalism provides economic surplus as citizens have access to jobs that could earn them their livelihood (Lippit 93). No one could doubt the fact that when there are jobs, people would be able to get by, and in the course of time become wealthy. Capitalism has been the backbone of economic surplus that Hong Kong experiences before and after it was handed over to China in 1997. Political empowerment: Capitalism empowers the people, and then the government. Hong Kong is notable in the Asian economic block because of its high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and high standard of living of her citizens. This reveals that capitalism could produce political strength through economic freedom. The effects of political power of Hong Kong could be felt as far as in Cambodia, where Hong Kong participates in local sponsorship; and to Thailand, where Hong Kong has elaborate trade relationships. The Western world still looks up to Hong Kong as a beacon of democracy, to act as an example to other Asian countries as well as mainland China. 4. Argument against those in 3 Capitalism also has some bad characteristics that make it evil in the eyes of the conservatives. Some of these unwelcome activities associated with capitalism are as follows: (a) Corruption: Too much wealth and influence creates monsters in the society: those who could achieve whatever ends they desire by largely relying on the power of their money (Chan 200). They could collude with corrupt individuals, like government officials, politicians and other professionals to influence rules or laws in order to satisfy their selfish objectives. They could control information and spread falsehood to cover up their filthy practices. At this junction, there wouldn’t be full recognition for the supremacy of the laws of the land. There would be tax evasions, monopoly, breach of contract and other unfair trade practices. Reports have indicated that some companies are owned by some Hong Kong politicians; this set of people would do all in their power to support only business laws that largely favor their businesses. And they would strongly oppose all regulations that seem to threaten the survival of their business interests. Capitalism has encouraged some criminal activities as business owners’ aim at making much money: these crime include piracy, inter-border smuggling, contraband peddling and organized crime. (b) Employment issues: A wealthy employer who could afford to hire a lawyer to defend his/her selfish causes won’t shy away from maltreating his/her employees. The employer could decide to cheat, discriminate against and fire the employees at will. Hong Kong labor laws would be totally disrespected, and the contractual agreement between the employer and the employee would be breached. This is a typical evil capitalism invokes in a society (Chan 72). In such cases, the workers are depressed and unhealthy. They are in a condition that constantly makes them unhappy but not receiving any help, because corruption has hindered the authorities from coming to help them. (c) Improper wealth distribution: Capitalism doesn’t equally distribute wealth among the citizens of a nation, it rather concentrate the density of wealth in the hands of a few lucky ones. This is evident in the growing number of poor people in Hong Kong despite the notion that high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) signifies better well-being. Improper wealth distribution could lead to economic slavery whereby poor people are compelled, by needs, to worship the richer ones. This erodes personal respect and paves way for oppression, mistreatment and other societal evils. (d) Abuse of power: Too much wealth and influence give capitalists the chance of involving themselves in partisan politics in order to manipulate the political processes to suit their selfish ambitions. This could result in lobbying for the passage of laws or rules that have little or no effects on the capitalists, but rob the workers of their statutory rights. Abuse of power could stir up protests, demonstrations and even civil unrest. This has happened many times in Hong Kong when people who felt maltreated took to the streets to vent their anger. An if this circumstance is left unchecked, it could go out of hand and could cause a major uprising that might request for a change of government! Capitalism not only lead to abuse of power, but also the abuse of human beings! Works cited 1. Atkinson, Anthony Barnes. Social Justice and Public Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983 2. Braham, Randolph L. Social Justice. New York: Springer, 1981 3. Sennett, Richard. The Culture of the New Capitalism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007 4. Lippit, Victor D. Capitalism. New York: Routledge, 2005 5. Chan, Raymond. Welfare in Newly industrialized Society: The Construction of the Welfare State in Hong Kong. Wiltshire, England: Avebury, 1996. 6. Callick, Rowan. Comrades & Capitalists: Hong Kong Since the Handover. Sydney: UNSW Press, 1998. Read More