20
do the workers of other industrial economies.
Identification
is rather with the family group. At the same time, the
family (which often includes several earners) provides the
individual worker with support in hard times which makes
other forms of collective association or social security
unnecessary. And there is a further "fall-back" in the
self-employment sector (street-hawking and so on) which is
still important in Hong Kong, and which unlike the
"informal sector" in developing economies generally
does
not provide substantially lower earnings than those in less-
skilled wage-employment.
vi) Finally, workers do not think of advancement in collective
terms because they are in general ambitious as individuals,
and intend rather to get on personally. Many hope to move
.up to become independent entrepreneurs themselves, or at
least for promotion to supervisory and higher posts. They
are not interested in collective associations which might
imply a sacrifice of individual to group interests.
is in any case a Chinese dislike of "confrontation"
situations.
There
28.
This builds up largely to an argument that collective organisation
and social protection are not necessary to the Hong Kong worker because he
or she operates effectively in a rational and competitive market, understang
that the employer is operating in the same way, and also gains from the
situation because of special cultural factors in it.
29.
Powerful
The second cluster of arguments runs rather as follows.
business interests are the major influence in Hong Kong, and have been able.
in the past at least, to effectively frustrate advanced social expenditure
or labour legislation, so that this has not appeared to workers a hopeful
road to progress.
The absence of political democracy, combined with the
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