Aging is a severe problem faced worldwide. Hong Kong, as a capitalist metropolis, has a high degree of bourgeois monopoly, and the aging problem is becoming more serious. According to statistics, Hong Kong is entering a “super-aged society,” and it is expected that by 2038, one in three people will be elderly. What impact will this situation have on Hong Kong society?
In the theories of bourgeois economists and sociologists, low birth rates and severe aging are often regarded as “symbols of social progress,” claiming that “birth rates in developed countries/regions are generally low,” a rhetoric that seems to have become an unquestionable truth. Clearly, according to the bourgeois mouthpieces, Hong Kong is already a developed region, and people’s lives are undoubtedly happy. However, Hong Kong, which has already become one of the world’s major capitalist cities, repeatedly shatters these shameless lies. The living standards of Hong Kong workers, especially elderly workers, reveal the truth.
According to the Hong Kong SAR Government’s own publication, the “2020 Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report,” in 2020, there were about 188,000 impoverished elderly people in Hong Kong, with an elderly poverty rate of 14.5%.
Every morning at 6:30, 70-year-old Hung Jie departs from Tai Kok Tsui, taking the subway to a private residence where she works as a cleaner. She often has to handle garbage and sweep floors in three residential buildings with a total of six floors. Heavy physical labor, especially waste sorting and搬运, makes her, already aging and physically weak, extend her working hours. Because her husband cannot work due to gout, and her mother, who is over a hundred years old, needs care, she has to continue working to support her family. Her children are far away in mainland China and cannot help, so Hung Jie often works three hours straight in the morning without rest.
The “2021 Hong Kong Population Census Report” shows that from 2011 to 2021, the elderly population aged 65 and above in Hong Kong increased from 940,000 to 1.45 million, a growth rate of over 54%. Among elderly workers, more than half, like Hung Jie, still engage in heavy physical labor. Data shows that the median monthly income of elderly workers is about HKD 15,000, while Hung Jie’s monthly income is HKD 12,000. This may not seem low in mainland China, but the reality is far more complex than these seemingly simple figures. The living standard of workers is not solely determined by their monetary wages but also by the quantity of living materials these wages can buy, i.e., real wages, which are often affected by price levels, rent levels, tax burdens, and unemployment rates. Hong Kong’s prices are extremely high. Hung Jie says that her monthly rent alone costs over HKD 5,000, and government subsidies are merely a drop in the bucket; her wages cannot keep up with soaring prices…
Wu Weidong from the Hong Kong Community Organization Association pointed out that many elderly workers are forced to continue working due to low education levels, insufficient accumulated provident funds, lack of minimum wage protection, high rent and medical costs, among other factors. Hong Kong has yet to establish a universal retirement security system, and workers’ retirement lives can only rely on meager personal savings, forcing them to work desperately in old age, selling increasingly cheap labor.
But the problem cannot be solved merely through minor adjustments like provident funds and government welfare. The Hong Kong SAR Government implemented the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) system as early as 2000, but many workers did not contribute enough before retirement, or even did not contribute at all, rendering the system virtually useless. The high costs of healthcare and housing make these minor reforms meaningless. Hung Jie’s health gradually deteriorates, but she dares not retire, fearing losing her income source and being unable to afford high medical expenses. Employment itself damages her body, and she can only hope that the government will allocate public housing to her soon.
In fact, issues like housing and healthcare have long been rights fought for by petty bourgeois democrats through peaceful and violent means, countless times appealing to the SAR government. Yet, why would Hong Kong’s monopolistic bourgeoisie not issue hollow promises on social security as they have on universal suffrage?
The intensifying economic crisis not only impoverishes the proletariat further but also accelerates the bankruptcy of many petty bourgeoisie. 67-year-old Sun Chengyi was once a prominent figure in Hong Kong’s minibus industry, operating three routes with monthly incomes reaching HKD 80,000 to 100,000. Now, he only has one route left, and earning HKD 8,000 to 10,000 a month has become difficult. As subway and public transportation developed, his minibus business declined. His previous expansion plans left him with a debt of HKD 5.5 million, and now he relies only on a modest retirement allowance and his daughter’s household support. His once-hopeful retirement dream of “carefree, eating what I like, going wherever I want” has become a mirage, and he has to continue driving his minibus, earning only HKD 6,000 a month.
Wu Weidong expressed deep sorrow over Hong Kong’s “forced labor” situation, which is unimaginable in other developed countries. However, the reality in Hong Kong repeatedly destroys the bourgeoisie’s rosy picture of “developed” capitalist cities. The so-called aging society is actually a synonym for proletarian impoverishment. Over the past decades, Hong Kong’s petty bourgeois democrats fought various battles to secure bourgeois-style democracy and protect workers’ lives, but without strong organizational leadership, they ultimately failed under the fascist fist of the middle-class revisionists. Today’s Hong Kong workers, especially elderly workers, can they still hope for the government’s “benevolence and care”? The answer is no. To truly realize “aging with support,” the masses in Hong Kong should resolutely take up arms.
