LS Project Stage 1 Purpose 2 ***

Purpose 2: To find out what is their living standard

In 2009, the median of the income per family is $17500. For the family under the poverty, they may receive less or half of the median ($17500/2=8250)(<8250).>

Food: $25 per meal per person

So, 25x2=50 50x30=1500 1500x4=6000

They need to pay $6000 for food supply.

Transportation: $10 per person per day

So, 10x30=300 300x4=1200

They need to pay $1200 for transportation fee.

Rent: $1500 ( For public housing estate)

They need to pay $1500 for the rent.

Extra expenses: $1000 (e.g.Electic, water)

6000+1200+1500+1000=9700>8000

So, this shows that without the financial help from GOV like CSSA, they cannot afford their lives for basic needs. Their living condition is really astounding. It is hard to imagine without the help of GOV, how would their live be!

A family consist of two bread-winners are really lucky! Some unattended old people may just rely on the financial help of CSSA, Old Age Allowance and some insignificant saving. If they are sick, they may just rely on the Free Wavier For Medical Services. They are deplorable!

On the contrast of the rich, there is really an enormous difference. No wonder we become the first in the Gene Coefficient of Asia counties.

Writter: Chan Kei Fung Edward

Wan Ka Chun Alexander

Kwok Sai Pui Sam

Wang Man Yuen

Background of Study ***

Background of Study

Refer to our title' A miilion of poor people', the definition of the 'poor' is argumentive. For the some countries, their government would establish a poverty line, in order to define a family is poor or not. In Hong Kong, HKGOV has not established a poverty line. As a sequence, people who get

the financial help of CSSA shall be defined as under 'poverty line'. Another way is to find to the median, the income per family who is below the half of the median would also be defined as below poverty line. (Refer to Oxfam website) In the first half of 2009, the percentage of poverty per capita is 17.9%, which is also based on the second way mentioned above to measure.

Also, the disparity between the rich and the poor is related to this project. Gene Coefficient is one of the way to measure the disparity. Hong Kong is ranked the first place in Asia. This means the disparity between the rich and the poor of Hong Kong is the largest among all the countries in Asia.

'Poverty' is the alarming task in Hong Kong Society. We hope that HKGOV can find the root of the problem and take the initiative to uproot the problem.

Written by Chan Kei Fung Edward

Stage 3 ***

The policy that can used nowadays world-widely to eliminate poverty can be classified to 3 groups.

A. Short-term Financial allowance

eg. CSSA

B. Long-term policy

eg. Provide better education, MPF

C. To protect the interests of the labours

eg. Minimum wages

A. Short Term Policy: For the poor in Hong Kong, they can enjoy the following allowance or can be subsidized in the following way. 1.Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA)(Exist in HK)

This scheme is aimed to provide a safety net for the low-income people, this let them to meet the prescribed standard.However, the applicants must willing to seek for a full-time job. Also, the applicant must satisfy the financial test and residence requirement.

2..Social Security Allowance (SSA) Scheme(Exist in HK)

This scheme is aimed to provide a more comprehensive help to 65+ people or disabled person. Also, there is no need to process the financial test for the applicant except Normal Old Age Allowance.

3. Free Wavier For Medical Services( (Exist in HK)

In order to provide essential medical services, so it is designed for low-income earners.

4. Unemployment subsidy

The government give unemployment subsidy for those people who are out of job temporary. This can help people to maintain their costs of livings during the unemployment period. This also allows them to have long time to find a better job. A lot of political parties in Hong Kong have suggested this policy.

B. Long Term Policy: The Government is trying to do better in different ways, trying to improve the living condition of the poor.

1. Raise the education level (Exist in HK)

The government helps to raise the education level of the poor people. This can help the people to have higher chance to find a better job with more income.

2. Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) (Exist in HK)

HK has MPF which can help the people to save some money for the use after their retirement.

3. Medical insurance scheme

For the old people, they may spend more expenses on medical treatments. If the government can set up a medical insurance scheme for them, this can help them to cover the medical expenses under the insurance cover. It has suggested to implement this policy before, but the reponse from the people and mass media were not really satisfactory. As a result, the suggestion was failed.

C. To protect the interest of the labour

For a capitalist society, the employer may deprived their employees from normal wages or working hours. This affect the living standard of the labour very much.

So, the government must use some ways to protect their interest.

1. Minimum wages

This can help the people to have reasonable income to improve their living standard. HKGOV has promised to form a group to look into the standard of the minimum wages.

2. Maximum working hours

This can help to create more job opportunities and get rid of being deprived. It has been still discussing in HK.

Written by: Chan Kei Fung Edward

Leung Ho Yin Joe

Acknowledgement ***

Acknowledgement
1. The GovHK - one-stop portal of the Hong Kong SAR Government
2. The Social Welfare Department
3. All of the teachers in QC (especially Mr. Chin& Mr. Wong)
4. QC Liberal Studies Department
5. All of the interviewees
6. Yahoo searcher
7. Google searcher
8. Singtao Daily
9. www.weirdasianews.com
10. us.asiancorrespondent.com
11. www.hkcss.org.hk
12. www.chinareviewnews.com
13. All of the teammates

Questionnaire Analysis(Edward) ***

Questionnaire Analysis

During the interview period, we distributed 39 questionnaires. We got back 32 questionnaires.

7 of our interviewees hold university degree. Others are secondary students. We grouped their opinions to the below report.

Q1. What is your first impact when you hear the word 'poverty'?

Most of the interviewees gave out negative feeling. They thought it is an acute problem and must be solved. They are sympathetic with the poor.

Q2. How would you define the word 'poverty'?

Most of our interviewees pointed out that 'poverty' means cannot afford the basic need of living standard. Or simply saying that the salaries of the people in a region are lower than the poverty line, in average. Their answer tend to tell us that 'poverty' means lack of basic necessities. This word may seems to be relative concept to some of our interviewees.

Q3. Do you think the policies that the HK Government uses nowadays to eliminate poverty are working or not?

9 of our interviewees think that the policies to eliminate poverty which is being used by HKGOV nowadays are working. Vice versa, the others hold the opposite perspective.

Q4. If you were Chief Executive, what would you do to fight against poverty?

Most of our interviewees gave out some useful opinions. Common examples like increasing social mobility, increasing special service to them or provide some facilities to them and let them enjoy their lives.Our interviewees would offer some vocational training for them.

Q5. Do you think CSSA is enough to the poor?

We offered 3 choices to our interviewees. (A)Enough,(B)Not enough and (C) more than enough.As it is one of the most argumentative topic in HK society, the difference between the interviewees which chose A and B is quite small. 14 of our interviewees gave out A, 'enough'. 15 of our interviewees gave out B, 'not enough'. 3 of our interviewees gave out C, 'more than enough'.

Q6. Do you think Hong Kong has a large disparity between the poor and rich?

We offered 2 choices , (A)Yes or (B)No. 3 of our interviewees chose B, No. The others chose A, Yes.

Q7. According to your answer in Q6, please state the reason.

For the interviewees who chose B in Q6, they have a thought that the poor in HK can still maintain their cost of living. For the others, they have a concept that HK is a capitalist society, so the rich can always benefit from free market policy. Also, lots of statistics like Gene Coefficient are tended to tell us that the disparity between the rich and the poor is very large in HK.

Conclusion

After this interview, we found that Hong Kong people got a sympathetic feeling to the poor, this means Hong Kongers are kind. However, it seems that they treat the word 'poverty' as an adjective more than as a noun. They put a lot of subjective motion to the question. They cannot the put the finger on the standard of the word 'poverty'. Also, we found that the policy to eliminate poverty which HKGOV are using now did not earn a much esteem to the Hong Kong people.On the other hand, we are glad to know that most of Hong Hongers are long-sighted because they don't think that the problem of the large disparity of the rich and the poor can be solved by only distributing the money to the poor. Instead of it, they would like to find out the root of the problem and solve it. And most probably it would be a long term policy like providing better education or vocational training which are associated with the financial help of CSSA.

Questionnaire Editor: Chan Kei Fung Edward

Leung Ho Yin Joe

Interviewers: Chan Kei Fung Edward

Leung Ho Yin Joe

Wang Man Yuen

Analysis: Chan Kei Fung Edward

Reminder for Stage 3

Dear teammates,
Stage 3 starts on today(1/3/2010). Alexander, Manyuen, Joe & Edward please do your work soon. The deadline will be posted on next reminder.
If you have any problem, please refer to the plan or ask Edward.
Thank you.

Liberal Studies Project Stage 2 (By Sam)***

1. Statistics shown the poverty issue is never resolving and it revolts more severely. In 1996, there are 85700 households that have less than HK$4000 per month, but in 2000, the number increases to 178000. It is 8.4% of the total households in Hong Kong.
2. Who are the victims of poverty?
a. The new immigrants from the China Mainland. Because of the language, education qualification and the degree of adaptability, they may not be so easy to find employment. Their jobs are mainly unskilled and under-paid.
b. In 1996, the government statistic shows us that 14.1% of the total population of the poor is aged about 60. The elderly retired without much retirement support are the victims of poverty.
c. In 1988, there are 49000 factories, but in 1997, it reduces to 25000. In 1988, there are 830000 workers, but in 1997, it reduces to 280000. Hong Kong society is a post-industrial society, and its characteristics are a “service society”, “information society”, “knowledge society” and “network society”.Such society is especially unfavorable to the semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
d. Globalization is another factor threatening the poor. In order to lower the cost of production, sub-contracting becomes a normal practice in contemporary businesses. Sub-contracting brings the cost of production down as well as the wages.
e. Since the 1990s, there are 150 people daily from the China Mainland to immigrate to Hong Kong. Most of them are unskilled, and they have low market value. At the same time, many of them are below 30 years old, and their arrival directly challenge the existing labor market. On the one hand, they lower the salary, and on the other, they easily replace the unskilled job of those who are 40. Unemployment and employment but in poverty (due to the low wages) are the results of this change. In fact, we find that the rate of unemployment is very high within the aged group of mid-40s.
f. Learning a new skill for the middle-age workers is more difficult than we are supposed to be. Furthermore, in a new economy, a new skill is important as well as the new attitude and mentality, and the latter is something related to the educational background.
g. The unemployment rate of teenagers is about 20%. In the past, when we still had our industries, many of them could be the apprenticeship.
3. The Dilemma faced by different parties in handling the poverty issue.
a. Hong Kong is a small economy with scarce natural resources. It maintains itself as a small government and let the market to balance the flow of economy. Hence, it may be negligible effort to deal with poverty issue.
b. Globalisation and to diminish the cost of production as well as the maximization of profits will cause the poor in a more unfavourable condition. One local government can help much in such situation. Policy is a piecemeal effect only.

By Sam Kwok