A powerful, but oft-ignored factor underlying the frustrations of Hong Kong’s people is inequality . And, contrary to the prevailing pro-democracy narrative, the failure of Hong Kong’s autonomous government to address the problem stems from the electoral politics to which the protesters are so committed. Hong Kong - the least affordable city on earth; where the inequality ratio is among the highest. A capitalist enclave left over by British imperialism. Via Michael Roberts "The cosiness between Hong Kong’s tycoons and government – both locally and extending to Beijing – a nexus blamed by many of the city’s street protesters today as the major cause of their woes: one of the developed world’s widest income gaps in the least affordable housing market on earth ." The fortunes of Hong Kong’s 75 wealthiest billionaires – estimated at US$224 billion in 2013 – made up nearly 82 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product, according to Wealth-X’s Billionaire Census. By l...
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51