Jump to content

Resettling Hong Kong


ScienceNostalgia101

Recommended Posts

Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world, at least as far as rent goes. Certainly more expensive than Shanghai or Beijing. Presumably, in addition to comparably close proximity to the rest of east Asia, it has much to offer that mainland China doesn't, like freedom of speech, or democracy, or (relatively) cleaner air. But the former two are in doubt, as China enacts more and more restrictions on them.

 

Evidently, they aren't getting their money's worth anymore.

 

There are an estimated 17 million housing units vacant in the USA. That's already more than the number of people who live in Hong Kong. Why can't the USA offer transportation of the entire population of Hong Kong to the vacant housing units in the USA, such that they know they'll have freedom of speech and democracy, and if China were to ever send in the tanks, they would conquer nothing but abandoned buildings, which China already has plenty of? What better way to both help these people and punish the government responsible for the spread of coronavirus to the rest of the world at the same time?

 

I know the more mainstream suggestion is to offer those houses to the homeless of the USA, but the tradeoff is that this might encourage some people to quit their jobs thinking they can just get a free house anyway if they end up homeless. Not all people, obviously, but possibly some. Hong Kongers, on the other hand, have proven themselves industrious enough to make it in a city that costs a fortune just to live in, only to have the rug pulled out from beneath their feet through no conceivable fault of their own. I've no doubt some of the homeless are probably homeless through no fault of their own either, but I still think those who've plainly proven themselves should take priority first, and those we're less sure about second.

 

What say you, everyone?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ScienceNostalgia101 said:

Why can't the USA offer transportation of the entire population of Hong Kong to the vacant housing units in the USA

What’s in it for them? US can’t even get improved schools for their own kids or fix bridges that are crumbling, let alone nationalized healthcare. You think despite these challenges the US taxpayers are going to 1) approve spending their tax dollars on this despite the lack of obvious ROI, and 2) stick a giant finger into the eye of China, its largest trading partner?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People, on average, earn more where it costs more to live. This doesn't necessarily mean they're any more industrious though.

In reality I think this would just reduce the available supply, rather than cut into the Airbnb or real-estate speculation culture.

Edited by Endy0816
typo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/31/2020 at 10:54 PM, iNow said:

What’s in it for them? US can’t even get improved schools for their own kids or fix bridges that are crumbling, let alone nationalized healthcare. You think despite these challenges the US taxpayers are going to 1) approve spending their tax dollars on this despite the lack of obvious ROI, and 2) stick a giant finger into the eye of China, its largest trading partner?

The "trading partner" that had been selling Americans a lot of defective, lead-painted junk? The USA needs new trading partners ASAP anyway.

 

The return on investment comes from the productivity Hong Kongers have already demonstrated making their unique city-state work. (That is, until it was pulled from beneath their feet by mainland China.) If there's more where that from, then perhaps the USA stands to benefit more from this than said Kong Kongers themselves. Who better to figure out how to fix the healthcare system and infrastructure than people who handled coronavirus better than Americans did, and built better infrastructure?

Edited by ScienceNostalgia101
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, ScienceNostalgia101 said:

The return on investment comes from the productivity Hong Kongers have already demonstrated making their unique city-state work.

What is your ballpark estimate for how much that return will be per annum? How does that compare the massive up front expenditure to move all of those people and find them homes and work?

I’ll ignore for the moment the absurdly obvious political obstacles of your idea while I wait to watch you dodge this straight forward question. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/31/2020 at 4:28 PM, ScienceNostalgia101 said:

Why can't the USA offer transportation of the entire population of Hong Kong to the vacant housing units in the USA

Are you at all familiar with either America or China?

Where do you come up with this stuff? You can't possibly be that naive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My personal experience is primarily with Canada, but seeing as how personal experiences cannot be proven online, they should have no bearing on the perceived value of my reasoning.

 

I cannot offer a precise estimate on the return on investment per annum. But a society as densely populated as Hong Kong's takes a lot of ingenuity to maintain. The next-most-comparably-expensive cities are also densely populated. If we could import that ingenuity, intelligence, and work ethic, it would be shocking if it didn't eventually pay for itself.

Edited by ScienceNostalgia101
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, ScienceNostalgia101 said:

they should have no bearing on the perceived value of my reasoning.

There is no reasoning. At all. You do no research and cite no sources. You simply blurt out preposterous scenarios and fail to address the many issues with your proposals when people point them out to you.

Edited by zapatos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This could be a far more reasonable discussion if we instead focused on implementing possible incentives to encourage such a relocation, and what incentives might be most effective from the standpoint of both up-front costs and heads relocated.

Alternatively, working through the political ramifications and overcoming the nearly certain perception of these steps as being inherently imperialistic might also be worth exploring. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Why can't the USA offer transportation of the entire population of Hong Kong to the vacant housing units in the USA"

is on par with:

"I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."

Both start with an observable set of facts and then immediately jump into the deep end with no ability to keep your head above water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, zapatos said:

Both start with an observable set of facts and then immediately jump into the deep end with no ability to keep your head above water.

I am not sure how to call it, but it is a somewhat self-centered perspective that no only fails to take the ramifications into account, but also neglects that the folks in Hong Kong are humans with their own agenda and not that just bodies that can be easily shuffled around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I am not sure how to call it, but it is a somewhat self-centered perspective that no only fails to take the ramifications into account, but also neglects that the folks in Hong Kong are humans with their own agenda and not that just bodies that can be easily shuffled around.

Absolutely! What about family? Friends? Doctors? Memories? Jobs? Familiarity? Food? Goals? Favorite restaurants and parks? Culture? The list goes on forever.

How very paternalistic of someone to read an article about something bad in my country and suggest I leave everything I know because what they have to offer is so much better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.