TNAG-2119-FCO40-3025-Future-of-Hong-Kong-general-1990 — Page 71

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old conceptions persist is testified by the fact that the

majority of respondents explained poverty by personal fault or

reasons rather than by social causes. However, most importantly,

a predominant proportion of them perceived conflicts between the

rich and the poor in society. More ominously, they considered

conflict between them as inevitable.30

The respondents of Wong also saw a lot of opportunities for

upward mobility in society. They thought that Hong Kong was open

enough to reward individual endeavors and self-efforts.

Nevertheless, lurking beneath these sanguine platitudes are more

realistic and even pessimistic assessments of one's chance of

success. Three-quarters of the respondents, for example, saw the

likelihood of job mobility (changing to a better job) for

themselves as either none or very little. The gap between general

expectation and personal reality is likely to foment feelings of

personal failure and dissatisfaction with society.

In Hong Kong, class conflict would most likely express itself

increasingly in political actions. Except for the employees in

the public sector and large corporations, the workers in Hong

Kong are faced with numerous small employers, hence they can

hardly organize on a large-scale and utilize market tactics (such

as strikes) to force the latter to make concessions. The weakness

of the trade unions further cripples the workers bargaining

29 Wong's survey is part of the Social Indicator project

mentioned in fn. 3.

30 In my own 1988 survey, it was found that 74.1 percent of respondents thought that the government should tax the rich more to reduce economic inequality. See Lau and Kuan, 'Public Attitude,' p. 770.

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