How many of us knew HK was never a democratic system?

[Camlon]

Originally Posted by Greysholic

Lol. Right. Use per capita figure in an era where population growth rate is through the roof.

The ten largest economies by average values of GDP (nominal) by every half decade from the available data in IMF, World Bank, and United Nations lists (in USD billions)
France (1960) - 61.552
France (1975) - 355.608

Italy (1960) - 40.385
Italy (1975) - 219.392

I use GDP per capita instead of GDP because high population growth does not increase peoples standard of living.

Also, population growth from 1950 to 1970 was around 0.5% - 1.5% depending on the country. That means even if you include population growth, none of western european countries are close to double digit growth. The highest will be Spain with 6.5% and Sweden will still be below 4%.

The reason you get different results is because you totally forgot about dollar inflation and currency fluctuations. So lets use your data source for Qatar, just for the laughs, Qatar 1970: 301, Qatar 1980: 7820, Qatar average yearly growth rate 38.5%. Do you seriously believe that?

[Tomboy-]

The idea of decreasing the number of casinos in Macau by stop renewing the licenses of American casinos maybe good because the bets and number of gamblers have decreased by over 90% due to Covid travel restrictions and bad global economy.

The practice of crossing the border to study or work is now not inconvenience but 100% not doable because of the Qurantine requirements. The breadwinner of families now live and work in HK and the rest of his or her family still live in Shenzhen. Some children can't live and study in HK because they don't have homes or have relatives in HK.

The real estate people are happy HK people must live in HK in order to work or study in HK. They are not happy on the other hand because of the falling number of homes sold, rent and tenants due to bad economy caused by protests scaring the tourists/shoppers and Covid.

Originally Posted by maomao

regarding macau:

yes, my point is that the macau government has leverage in deciding who gets new gambling licenese or renewal every some years. That's a lot of power in the hand of the government controlling the major business.

and no, crossing the border every day twice is not inconvenience because there are special passes for those people. People that work and go to school in hk and lives in shenzhen. There are news about crossing border students not able to go back to school the upcoming school year due to covid.

this is similar to US people living in washington state and work in Vancouver or BC canadians working in seattle


so in conclusion, it makes perfect sense to do business/work in hong kong (higher wage, cheaper tax), and live in the mainland (cheaper housing and cost of living). So yes, the real estate tycoons better be worry. I'm struggling to find anywhere else in the world where real estate corporations stocks worth so much as in HK.

[Greysholic]

Originally Posted by Camlon

I use GDP per capita instead of GDP because high population growth does not increase peoples standard of living.

Also, population growth from 1950 to 1970 was around 0.5% - 1.5% depending on the country. That means even if you include population growth, none of western european countries are close to double digit growth. The highest will be Spain with 6.5% and Sweden will still be below 4%.

You also use gdp per capita adjusted by purchasing power parity which is the most meaningless metric there is.

The reason you get different results is because you totally forgot about dollar inflation and currency fluctuations.

Even if you take dollar inflation and currency fluctuations into consideration, franc and lira's value didn't jump up by fives times within 15 years.

And even if you don't believe that growth rate was that high in Western Europe then, fine, accurate stats from that long ago are hard to find anyway. My point still stands: what China achieved in the past few decades is nothing spectacularly special. Many countries did it before and did it better, and China's large, aging population and the Chinese government antagonising literally everyone else are not doing themselves any favour. When the growth stops, and it already is stopping, it will go down ugly.

[Tomboy-]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

Hong Kong was never about Democracy. It was about pure Capitalism. That is why it became so rich and why so much business was conducted there. It wasn't about freedom, it was about business/banking/financing.

HK has always been a capitalist city of international trade, uninterrupted after 1949 and 1997.

Exactly the main reason why people went to HK. For most Chinese and foreigners moved to HK before and after 1997, Earning a living or making profits is more important than everything else.