A popular theme surrounding the social-political sphere in Hong Kong at present is the so called “hatred of the rich” or 仇富 in Chinese. Recently, Hong Kong society has realised the monopoly powers of real estate developers. Accumulating mass profit from the property sector, it has turned to other industries for further profiting. Today, these developers control everything from supermarkets to transport to telecommunications. Therefore, the house you live in, the internet and phone you use, the food you buy at supermarket to the transport you take to work, are all owned by real estate developers. The working class has even joked at the fact that they all work for them as every bit of their lives revolves around consuming goods and services produced and hence generating revenues for them.
This strikes me of the similarity to Marx’s theory on class struggles and the evolution of the political economy. The phenomenon in Hong Kong has led to an increase of hatred against the rich (i.e. Bourgeois) and resembles the exploitation of the working class (i.e. the proletariats) whom are the real producers of wealth. As capitalism evolves, the rich will get richer and poor get poorer to which at the point the monopolist controls all means of production. With Hong Kong being the most capitalist economy in the world, it will be at the forefront of any political economic development and this phenomenon seems to coincide with Marx’s theory on class struggle and the evolution of capitalism.
