M23 Flashcards
What is Gini Coefficient and what is the warning level of it?
It shows the gap between the rich and poor and the warning level is 0.4. The higher the value of Gini Coefficient is, the larger the gap between the rich and poor is.
What is median income?
Comparing the income difference among the lowest and highest data of the group.
What is poverty line?
Minimum income level to satisfy the basic living standards and if it is below the poverty line, it means it’s poor.
What is the conclusion of the indicators- Gini coefficient, median income, poverty line.
The gap between the rich and poor in Hong Kong is widening gradually. There is a phenomenon of ‘the poor is getting poor while the rich is getting richer’ in Hong Kong. The living standard of the lower-class people have not improved. Due to economic, restructuring, the low-skilled workers with low education level are heavily impacted.
What is the reason of why the elderly is getting poorer?
It is because there is no income from work as they have poor health and outdated skills. No comprehensive old protection from the government.
What is the reason children living in cubicle apartments?
Parents have low income and lack of resources enhance qualifications.
What is the reason of people with long term sickness being poor?
They are physically and mentally not suitable to work and large proportion of income is spent on medical sickness.
What is the reason of the new immigrants from South Asia being poor?
They generally have low proficiency in Chinese and there is racial discrimination.
What is the reason of the manufacturing workers being poor?
Economic restructuring and they have low education level.
What are the impacts of being poor?
- Lowering the quality of life, poor living environments with insufficient basic facilities like subdivided flats and cage homes.
- Intergenerational poverty. Lower class cannot afford the resources that are helpful for their children. This weakens their competitiveness. their children can only get low paid jobs in the future, resulting in social class inheritance.
- Lowering social stability. Uneven allocation of social resources leads to conflicts between the rich and poor.
What are the solutions from the government of improving people’s life?
- Social Security Policy like the CSSA Scheme
- Enhancing social competitiveness of the poor like the Employees Retraining Scheme for the employees with low education levels.
- Protect basic labour interests like statutory minimum wage.
- Satisifies housing demands like the House Ownership Scheme.
- Promote industrial diversificaton like develop cultural and creative industries.
What are the solutions from the NGOs of improving people’s life?
- Providing material aid like organizing donation activities and set up food banks.
- Educate the public to care about the poverty problem like giving talks at school and visit communities.
- Put pressure on the government like requiring the government to strengthen the social security scheme.
What are the solutions from the individuals?
Pursuing lifelong learning like taking different retraining courses, care for the society and participate in social activities.
