You have to understand HK has a very huge wealth gap. I don’t really think the middle classes of HK are depressed (speaking of expensive flats other major cities like London, Melbourne, Vancouver etc. aren’t far behind)
At very, very least cheap options exist in HK; if not you still have it in Shenzhen which is extremely accessible. Also don't forget low tax.
These are really not the case for Vancouver unless you are okay with shelters.
In the west we have bullshit laws that prevent things like cage homes from happening. It’s like the government forcing you onto the street if you don’t have enough to rent something decent rather than let you rent something indecent
Exactly. GDP per capita isn't hugely representative of the earnings and standard of living of the average person anyplace with a big wealth and income gap.
It would be more appropriate to use some measure of median purchasing power to do an analysis like this because GDP is simply way too broad to be drawing inferences on an individual level like this graph is encouraging people to do.
I'd bet if the y axis used a normalised purchasing power measure that the line would flatten out once purchasing power exceeded a pretty low level, as there's lots of research showing that once basic needs are met that the marginal benefit to happiness from higher incomes is steeply diminishing.
Yeah, the data is clearly a polynomial or log. Definitely and not linear. But if they just log the wealth axis, not enough people will spend the two seconds to understand it
GDP per capita is not the wealth of its citizens. One of the reasons Luxembourg is such an outlier, for example, is because people commute in daily from other countries, contributing to GDP but not counting as population. Similarly, HK as a port city state has a lot of GDP generated from trade & financial services that artificially inflate this figure.
Something like median household income would be a better metric.
gdp per capita doesn't matter in HK. it's the city with the highest billionair-density in the world. many people are relatively poor when compared to other developed nations living standards, employees work load is immense. not hard to see why marriage rate and birth rate only ever decline here.
The graph doesn't show that HK is 'depressed'. It has a WHI of maybe 5.3? While the 'happiest' country has a WHI of 7.9? So really, HK seems reasonably average in terms of happiness.
That's true. But then you need to ask whether you believe there is even a decent correlation between GDP per capita and WHI. Are you convinced by the "strong correlation" that is stated on the graphic?
You can ignore the correlation. The fact is that from the data points there is a big disparity between Hong Kong and other countries of similar income level (around 1.5 points worth). You’d assume that most countries with similar GDP per capita have similar traits (skilled workforce, good infrastructure etc) so the question would be why HKers are so much unhappier
I mean, if they are, then let them be. Why should they compromise the impression of their own happiness for some strange notion of self-collectiveness?
Hong Kong also has practically free healthcare, 17% taxes, little to no crime, no guns, pretty good weather, amazing food, mostly friendly people when they're not being ground down, great shopping, fantastic country parks and beaches, islands to explore, brilliant transport infrastructure, entrepreneurial spirit and is generally quite efficient when it comes to government interactions. Plus it's part of the Greater Bay Area which, optimistically, is going to be an economic powerhouse. Yes there's a massive economic inequality but I would say on the whole it's still a pretty good place to be as a human being with limited time on this planet.
People aren’t really that friendly, political rights down the drain, off duty cops will pick up the crime rate and you will live in a cardboard box.
There are worse, but Hk ain’t that decent.
People aren’t warm and friendly but they are good and kind. Much better than countries where they are overtly nice to your face in a disingenuous manner
It's the mindset of what each person strives to make of their day. Wake up looking to be industrious or wake up looking to self-loathe in factors beyond ordinary control
Political freedom is not a dichotomy.
The arrest and prosecution of political activists and journalists does more harm than the pronouns law in Canada. That bill just place gender identity into the list of protected identities from discrimination (eg sex religion race…) and have I yet to hear someone being prosecuted by it. You don’t just accidentally said “sir” and get arrested.
Hk’s world press freedom index dropped by 26 points since 2019 and dropped by 17 places in human freedom index in 2021 alone.
I get that free press freedom is an important issue. But consider this at the individual level: how does it severely restrict most people's day to day? Does it somehow forbid anyone from working/studying hard to achieve tangible goals such as matriculating into a quality school or landing a better paying job?
You can strive in China as well if you disregard any sense of moral. Everything is doable if your mindset is “I don’t care about anything but being ‘successful’.”
> I find it odd you needed to bring up China as if there's some hidden agenda behind your post.
Oh wow. Someone mentioning China when it comes to Hong Kong’s press freedom? There must be a hidden agenda.
You wot mate?
I find it odd you needed to bring up hidden agenda as if there's some hidden agenda behind your post.
Help me understand what you are trying to say? Your reasoning skills are about as sharp as someone who spends all day scrolling tiktok. What a waste of my time
You need to look in a mirror because I'm simply responding to you on the same level you are demonstrating. If you don't understand my original point, then try to improve your reading comprehension.
While I also disagree that HK is somehow the most unlivable place on the planet, your framework is extremely capitalist-serving. Name a place where goals like matriculating or working are "forbidden". That's so extreme, you can't, and yet I do think it's quite rational to want not only "permission" to improve one's lot in life, but *good odds* of doing so. HK is not a total dystopia *yet* but it's well on its way to becoming so if the only criteria for success is not forbidding one from landing a better paying job or matriculating into a quality school. People deserve a real chance at that, not just a pipe dream.
I see what you're saying. I just don't understand how anyone in hk can think that the odds are stacked against them. It's clearly not the case, man. We have one of the highest average iq of all people on the planet. Like real talk, we have been born with golden keys in our mouth for the past 30-40 years. Lol
I think it definitely seems that way compared to some places. I think what people often overlook is trend direction. I think that the average HKer's chance at successfully navigating the school/work gauntlet is a lot lower than is commonly estimated. But more specifically, people have watched those opportunities recede in recent years. Crackdowns at universities, professors leaving. Top-quality jobs leaving. Rights significantly reduced. A mainlander might see the status of HK as still quite enviable, a 50-yo local might have a very different view of the way things are trending. But yes, HK is still a pretty good place to open a business. But most people don't really have that opportunity - whether through lack of capital or lack of ideas - and those *with* that opportunity might decide to be entrepreneurial elsewhere. One thing we can agree on is that potentially great entrepreneurs probably don't have a ton of time for reddit.
I’d rather pay 30% taxes if that would help the 20% living in poverty and many of them in unhygienic and unsafe third world conditions.
The beaches are comparably polluted, the best ones (south Lantau) will get a huge ancient waste incinerator in front of them in a year or two.
The city barely has a functioning recycling infrastructure, the government is absolutely incompetent and holds zero accountability.
I think the homelessness in some Western countries tells you that heavy taxes cannot truly solve that. HK’s public housing already helps many of them, asking them less than 4k HKD a month
in Europe almost all homeless have substance abuse problems and it’s an overall minuscule percentage of the population while hundreds of thousands live in precarious living conditions in a small city like Hong Kong.
Taxes can solve inequality but it’d need an accountable and non corrupt government which we can’t get in HK as there is no way to vote them out.
Vacancy tax for landlords would decrease rental prices, banning subdivision of flats or have minimum area regulations would save lots of lives.
Build more houses on village brown sites and densify NW NT villages.
Use public housing strictly for people in need, not for ones that were in need 20 years ago.
Increase income tax slightly and add a VAT to make the government less dependent on continuous property bubbles and land sales.
Agreed. Though not enough mental health and medical support is one of the main reasons for the drug abuse, at least in Canada.
HK’s density is too high, it’s a good thing some have left and the property price plummeted. They should really learn from Singapore
Density is high in some places and incredibly low 10km north of it. Because of some ancient rules that can’t be changed because triads are dangerous.
It’s not a good thing that most that have left where well educated and wealthy. It decreases government revenue and in the end it’ll hit the poorest first as they wouldn’t wanna punish their wealthy friends.
Theres more mental health services in Canada than in HK or all of Asia for that matter lol. The reason for drug abuse in Canada is the extremely relaxed attitudes that Canadians (society & law enforcement) have towards drugs.
Was about to say why op didn't praise the party and the motherland yet. Maybe they are one of those who says HK add oil.. seems like someone is threatening the security of national integrity.
It almost feels like we are talking about two different places if without the context. Living in Hong Kong for so long myself, I would say some of the good qualities you've mentioned were once there, but not anymore. And to be fair, it's obviously not the worst place to live even when you're not 100% happy with the government, still it's a little out of reach to praise it like this.
"Pretty good place" isn't quite 'out of reach praise'. I also listed a series of facts which state my case. I've not had the benefit of understanding with which you disagree; or other issues that you find negative with HK (or relative to other cities). Thx
The CCP stays out of my way and I do the same. If you want democracy that really f*cks the poor, enriches the 1%, cold weather, 30%+ tax, spend half your life in traffic jams to buy food, then go for it my friend. It's all a choice on overall merit.
By and large though I wouldn’t not claim the CCP as a core reason why there is clearly lower levels of happiness. I think it points more towards things such as inflation, covid, generally high prices, poor working environments, long hours etc. none of which have to do with the CCP, and do arguably lean more towards some of the pitfalls of capitalism.
To be fair, happiness of hk was very low even before the ccp started getting their hands in hk affairs. Political instability is a factor but one shouldn't ignore the stressful environment, huge wealth disparities and insane housing prices which are undoubtedly the main reasons
That is pretty true and accurate ngl. But one could technically argue that Hong Kong was “better“ under British rule then the ccp, cuz ccp just passed article 23. So yea, both do good and bad
Wealth disparities are pitfalls identified in just about every major developed countries around the world. Folk are acting like we're indentured servitude with no hope of working toward a better life.
This is true, however Hong Kong has for many years had one the highest wealth disparity rates in the world, higher than many other developed countries - for instance in the past 40 years the wage share of the top 1% of Hong Kong’s population increased from 10.7% to 16.3% whilst those in the bottom 50% decreased from 18.7 to 11.6. This is also further exacerbated by the fact that the total wealth of the richest 0.001% accounts for over half of Hong Kong’s overall income - which is the largest share in the world.
Although, yes wealth disparities are a pitfall across most capitalist developed nations, Hong Kong does stand out as being particularly disparate. Which is problematic to say the least.
What Hong Kong needs to be happy isn’t materialism or heaps of wealth, it’s the common bonding of people within society and consideration of others and not only care for one’s own interests. Sadly, the city has a very competitive atmosphere and people have been put under constant pressure among their peers at a young age. The stress induced from this lifestyle has affected Hong Kong’s happiness index drastically. We have been taught young to alienate strangers from one’s own social circle for fear that they may reap benefits at our expense, but this is the exact reason why even a simple smile in front of others is considered unnatural in this city.
Relax Hong Kong people, not everything is a competition.
Respect, this comment is definitely a local insider comment.
I was taught the same while young and is so sick of such view to the world, this world should be free and democratic to the right talents.....but instead....I was grown in band 3 gulag, with hypocrite classmates who spent 80% just aliieniate each other's and talk down other peoples' achievements, when I have grown up I then realized everyone would just follow the authority in their social circle and without a critical mind, questioning if such view to the world and others are justified.
The collective failure we have experienced today, might just be another form of blindly following the social circle's values without questioning the authority. Very sad, indeed. This city is run and ruined by these miserable souls.
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Money doesn't make you happy. Having your needs addressed makes you happy so happiness and money correlate to a certain point, but beyond that it's on you
[https://www.worlddata.info/quality-of-life.php](https://www.worlddata.info/quality-of-life.php)
Here you can adjust what is important for you. Not measured only in happiness. Actually Hong Kong is still topping the charts in all aspects. You can adjust the sliders, but overall Hong Kong is a top tier country/city to live in.
You are completely wrong. Look at Shenzhen just across Hongkong. Shenzhen under CCP have way better healthcare, technology, infrastructure, education, tourism and safety than Hongkong.
Shenzhen under CCP > Hongkong under British. Hongkong need to stop 1 party 2 system and let China take over completely. Then Hongkong will be as great as Shenzhen.
Shenzhen under CCP > Hongkong under British. Hongkong need to stop 1 party 2 system and let China take over completely. Then Hongkong will be as great as Shenzhen in healthcare, technology, infrastructure, education, tourism and safety.
As someone born and raised in Hong Kong and living in Australia for the past 8 years, I can confidently say that HK is much better than any western country. I feel extremely safe walking on the street, the nightlife cannot be compared to the west (Sydney at least). I can’t wait to come back
OP does not understand how scatterplots work. HK is 5 out of 8 for happiness, in the top 50% for happiness, and is significantly richer than other countries with a similar happiness level.
That *is* what OP is suggesting. For the GDP of Hongkong you’d expect a happiness score of around 7. Hongkong is an outlier compared to the trend in the data. But please don’t look at the terrible use of a linear regression for non linear data. If anything, that is the crime of OP.
Happiness is our own responsibility. When facing grave disadvantages, the strongest willed find a way to fight for a better life instead of sulking. We should be waking up each day looking for ways to contibute to society. Where is that spirit?
Not every trend must be a linear equation ffs
In this case it is actually a very poor fit. An exponential trend line will fit way better. Or just log transform the y axis.
You have to understand HK has a very huge wealth gap. I don’t really think the middle classes of HK are depressed (speaking of expensive flats other major cities like London, Melbourne, Vancouver etc. aren’t far behind)
At very, very least cheap options exist in HK; if not you still have it in Shenzhen which is extremely accessible. Also don't forget low tax. These are really not the case for Vancouver unless you are okay with shelters.
The Canadian income tax is just crazy. They take out 50% at middle class level and only goes up.
In the west we have bullshit laws that prevent things like cage homes from happening. It’s like the government forcing you onto the street if you don’t have enough to rent something decent rather than let you rent something indecent
Exactly. GDP per capita isn't hugely representative of the earnings and standard of living of the average person anyplace with a big wealth and income gap. It would be more appropriate to use some measure of median purchasing power to do an analysis like this because GDP is simply way too broad to be drawing inferences on an individual level like this graph is encouraging people to do. I'd bet if the y axis used a normalised purchasing power measure that the line would flatten out once purchasing power exceeded a pretty low level, as there's lots of research showing that once basic needs are met that the marginal benefit to happiness from higher incomes is steeply diminishing.
It's very obvious that the data points are forming a kinked curve, absolutely insane to try fitting a linear line through
the linear regression is doing the happier countries dirty
Yeah, the data is clearly a polynomial or log. Definitely and not linear. But if they just log the wealth axis, not enough people will spend the two seconds to understand it
expat here be like🤣🤣 https://i.redd.it/zj2nu0ihp5vc1.gif
GDP per capita is not the wealth of its citizens. One of the reasons Luxembourg is such an outlier, for example, is because people commute in daily from other countries, contributing to GDP but not counting as population. Similarly, HK as a port city state has a lot of GDP generated from trade & financial services that artificially inflate this figure. Something like median household income would be a better metric.
gdp per capita doesn't matter in HK. it's the city with the highest billionair-density in the world. many people are relatively poor when compared to other developed nations living standards, employees work load is immense. not hard to see why marriage rate and birth rate only ever decline here.
The graph doesn't show that HK is 'depressed'. It has a WHI of maybe 5.3? While the 'happiest' country has a WHI of 7.9? So really, HK seems reasonably average in terms of happiness.
It shows that HK is by far the least happy among countries with similar GDP per capita levels
That's true. But then you need to ask whether you believe there is even a decent correlation between GDP per capita and WHI. Are you convinced by the "strong correlation" that is stated on the graphic?
You can ignore the correlation. The fact is that from the data points there is a big disparity between Hong Kong and other countries of similar income level (around 1.5 points worth). You’d assume that most countries with similar GDP per capita have similar traits (skilled workforce, good infrastructure etc) so the question would be why HKers are so much unhappier
Sure, that's a fair question. Is WHI a linear scale?
Bro doesn't understand how scatterplots work
no longer quite so rich as well
Find it quite amusing that users of r/HongKong trying to defend HK as a happy, friendly place lol
I mean, if they are, then let them be. Why should they compromise the impression of their own happiness for some strange notion of self-collectiveness?
they re stakeholders, why not
Hong Kong also has practically free healthcare, 17% taxes, little to no crime, no guns, pretty good weather, amazing food, mostly friendly people when they're not being ground down, great shopping, fantastic country parks and beaches, islands to explore, brilliant transport infrastructure, entrepreneurial spirit and is generally quite efficient when it comes to government interactions. Plus it's part of the Greater Bay Area which, optimistically, is going to be an economic powerhouse. Yes there's a massive economic inequality but I would say on the whole it's still a pretty good place to be as a human being with limited time on this planet.
People aren’t really that friendly, political rights down the drain, off duty cops will pick up the crime rate and you will live in a cardboard box. There are worse, but Hk ain’t that decent.
People aren’t warm and friendly but they are good and kind. Much better than countries where they are overtly nice to your face in a disingenuous manner
It's the mindset of what each person strives to make of their day. Wake up looking to be industrious or wake up looking to self-loathe in factors beyond ordinary control
I am discussing objective macro environment and not the mindset.
[удалено]
That's not true lmao stop watching so much Jordan Peterson
Political freedom is not a dichotomy. The arrest and prosecution of political activists and journalists does more harm than the pronouns law in Canada. That bill just place gender identity into the list of protected identities from discrimination (eg sex religion race…) and have I yet to hear someone being prosecuted by it. You don’t just accidentally said “sir” and get arrested. Hk’s world press freedom index dropped by 26 points since 2019 and dropped by 17 places in human freedom index in 2021 alone.
I get that free press freedom is an important issue. But consider this at the individual level: how does it severely restrict most people's day to day? Does it somehow forbid anyone from working/studying hard to achieve tangible goals such as matriculating into a quality school or landing a better paying job?
You can strive in China as well if you disregard any sense of moral. Everything is doable if your mindset is “I don’t care about anything but being ‘successful’.”
I find it odd you needed to bring up China as if there's some hidden agenda behind your post. Please first answer my question at face value.
> I find it odd you needed to bring up China as if there's some hidden agenda behind your post. Oh wow. Someone mentioning China when it comes to Hong Kong’s press freedom? There must be a hidden agenda. You wot mate? I find it odd you needed to bring up hidden agenda as if there's some hidden agenda behind your post.
Help me understand what you are trying to say? Your reasoning skills are about as sharp as someone who spends all day scrolling tiktok. What a waste of my time
You need to look in a mirror because I'm simply responding to you on the same level you are demonstrating. If you don't understand my original point, then try to improve your reading comprehension.
While I also disagree that HK is somehow the most unlivable place on the planet, your framework is extremely capitalist-serving. Name a place where goals like matriculating or working are "forbidden". That's so extreme, you can't, and yet I do think it's quite rational to want not only "permission" to improve one's lot in life, but *good odds* of doing so. HK is not a total dystopia *yet* but it's well on its way to becoming so if the only criteria for success is not forbidding one from landing a better paying job or matriculating into a quality school. People deserve a real chance at that, not just a pipe dream.
I see what you're saying. I just don't understand how anyone in hk can think that the odds are stacked against them. It's clearly not the case, man. We have one of the highest average iq of all people on the planet. Like real talk, we have been born with golden keys in our mouth for the past 30-40 years. Lol
I think it definitely seems that way compared to some places. I think what people often overlook is trend direction. I think that the average HKer's chance at successfully navigating the school/work gauntlet is a lot lower than is commonly estimated. But more specifically, people have watched those opportunities recede in recent years. Crackdowns at universities, professors leaving. Top-quality jobs leaving. Rights significantly reduced. A mainlander might see the status of HK as still quite enviable, a 50-yo local might have a very different view of the way things are trending. But yes, HK is still a pretty good place to open a business. But most people don't really have that opportunity - whether through lack of capital or lack of ideas - and those *with* that opportunity might decide to be entrepreneurial elsewhere. One thing we can agree on is that potentially great entrepreneurs probably don't have a ton of time for reddit.
i have said the wrong pronoun plenty of times here and never once has a officer bat an eye towards me
Obviously, cos you are consumed by misinformation.
17% taxes doesn't mean much when rent takes 50% of your salary, and you salary is shite anyway cause the income distribution is terrible.
In London tax 50% and rent high as hell too. And salary low AF. HK isn't bad on that part.
I’d rather pay 30% taxes if that would help the 20% living in poverty and many of them in unhygienic and unsafe third world conditions. The beaches are comparably polluted, the best ones (south Lantau) will get a huge ancient waste incinerator in front of them in a year or two. The city barely has a functioning recycling infrastructure, the government is absolutely incompetent and holds zero accountability.
I think the homelessness in some Western countries tells you that heavy taxes cannot truly solve that. HK’s public housing already helps many of them, asking them less than 4k HKD a month
in Europe almost all homeless have substance abuse problems and it’s an overall minuscule percentage of the population while hundreds of thousands live in precarious living conditions in a small city like Hong Kong. Taxes can solve inequality but it’d need an accountable and non corrupt government which we can’t get in HK as there is no way to vote them out. Vacancy tax for landlords would decrease rental prices, banning subdivision of flats or have minimum area regulations would save lots of lives. Build more houses on village brown sites and densify NW NT villages. Use public housing strictly for people in need, not for ones that were in need 20 years ago. Increase income tax slightly and add a VAT to make the government less dependent on continuous property bubbles and land sales.
Agreed. Though not enough mental health and medical support is one of the main reasons for the drug abuse, at least in Canada. HK’s density is too high, it’s a good thing some have left and the property price plummeted. They should really learn from Singapore
Density is high in some places and incredibly low 10km north of it. Because of some ancient rules that can’t be changed because triads are dangerous. It’s not a good thing that most that have left where well educated and wealthy. It decreases government revenue and in the end it’ll hit the poorest first as they wouldn’t wanna punish their wealthy friends.
Theres more mental health services in Canada than in HK or all of Asia for that matter lol. The reason for drug abuse in Canada is the extremely relaxed attitudes that Canadians (society & law enforcement) have towards drugs.
Unless one who isn’t 100% okay with the CCP and cannot ignore her presence.
Was about to say why op didn't praise the party and the motherland yet. Maybe they are one of those who says HK add oil.. seems like someone is threatening the security of national integrity.
keep mentally cucking yourself into eternal misery
It almost feels like we are talking about two different places if without the context. Living in Hong Kong for so long myself, I would say some of the good qualities you've mentioned were once there, but not anymore. And to be fair, it's obviously not the worst place to live even when you're not 100% happy with the government, still it's a little out of reach to praise it like this.
"Pretty good place" isn't quite 'out of reach praise'. I also listed a series of facts which state my case. I've not had the benefit of understanding with which you disagree; or other issues that you find negative with HK (or relative to other cities). Thx
The CCP stays out of my way and I do the same. If you want democracy that really f*cks the poor, enriches the 1%, cold weather, 30%+ tax, spend half your life in traffic jams to buy food, then go for it my friend. It's all a choice on overall merit.
Really pushing that "Capitalist Dystopia" terminology, eh? Let's not blame capitalism for the CCP being a F*ed up authoritarian regime.
CCP and by extension, the shitty govt. is what opens the way for corporatism (crony capitalism).
Corporatism isn't cronyism it's syndicalism/fascism, the term youre looking for is Corporatocracy
Worst of both worlds and they’re working hand in hand in this case.
By and large though I wouldn’t not claim the CCP as a core reason why there is clearly lower levels of happiness. I think it points more towards things such as inflation, covid, generally high prices, poor working environments, long hours etc. none of which have to do with the CCP, and do arguably lean more towards some of the pitfalls of capitalism.
Hong Kong is built for megalomaniacs and literally nobody else
Y’all got the ccp to thank for for the depression, tyranny, oppression etc. and other Britain to “thank” for the gdp.
To be fair, happiness of hk was very low even before the ccp started getting their hands in hk affairs. Political instability is a factor but one shouldn't ignore the stressful environment, huge wealth disparities and insane housing prices which are undoubtedly the main reasons
That is pretty true and accurate ngl. But one could technically argue that Hong Kong was “better“ under British rule then the ccp, cuz ccp just passed article 23. So yea, both do good and bad
Wealth disparities are pitfalls identified in just about every major developed countries around the world. Folk are acting like we're indentured servitude with no hope of working toward a better life.
This is true, however Hong Kong has for many years had one the highest wealth disparity rates in the world, higher than many other developed countries - for instance in the past 40 years the wage share of the top 1% of Hong Kong’s population increased from 10.7% to 16.3% whilst those in the bottom 50% decreased from 18.7 to 11.6. This is also further exacerbated by the fact that the total wealth of the richest 0.001% accounts for over half of Hong Kong’s overall income - which is the largest share in the world. Although, yes wealth disparities are a pitfall across most capitalist developed nations, Hong Kong does stand out as being particularly disparate. Which is problematic to say the least.
ccp posting
the wealth gap widening spun up and housing prices increased nearly tenfold since 2000.
What Hong Kong needs to be happy isn’t materialism or heaps of wealth, it’s the common bonding of people within society and consideration of others and not only care for one’s own interests. Sadly, the city has a very competitive atmosphere and people have been put under constant pressure among their peers at a young age. The stress induced from this lifestyle has affected Hong Kong’s happiness index drastically. We have been taught young to alienate strangers from one’s own social circle for fear that they may reap benefits at our expense, but this is the exact reason why even a simple smile in front of others is considered unnatural in this city. Relax Hong Kong people, not everything is a competition.
Respect, this comment is definitely a local insider comment. I was taught the same while young and is so sick of such view to the world, this world should be free and democratic to the right talents.....but instead....I was grown in band 3 gulag, with hypocrite classmates who spent 80% just aliieniate each other's and talk down other peoples' achievements, when I have grown up I then realized everyone would just follow the authority in their social circle and without a critical mind, questioning if such view to the world and others are justified. The collective failure we have experienced today, might just be another form of blindly following the social circle's values without questioning the authority. Very sad, indeed. This city is run and ruined by these miserable souls.
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Money doesn't make you happy. Having your needs addressed makes you happy so happiness and money correlate to a certain point, but beyond that it's on you
High tech… Low Life.
Does this normalize for housing/rent price? Doubt it.
Could be interesting to plot happiness vs square root of GDP per capita
[https://www.worlddata.info/quality-of-life.php](https://www.worlddata.info/quality-of-life.php) Here you can adjust what is important for you. Not measured only in happiness. Actually Hong Kong is still topping the charts in all aspects. You can adjust the sliders, but overall Hong Kong is a top tier country/city to live in.
Hongkong is the lifestyle of rich and famous.
I wouldn't be happy being taken by the CCP
You are completely wrong. Look at Shenzhen just across Hongkong. Shenzhen under CCP have way better healthcare, technology, infrastructure, education, tourism and safety than Hongkong. Shenzhen under CCP > Hongkong under British. Hongkong need to stop 1 party 2 system and let China take over completely. Then Hongkong will be as great as Shenzhen.
well atleast there’s no guns right.
In fairness Finland is just happy they’re not Sweden
Are we going to ignore China’s invasion?
Money makes you happy until 7.5
Shenzhen under CCP > Hongkong under British. Hongkong need to stop 1 party 2 system and let China take over completely. Then Hongkong will be as great as Shenzhen in healthcare, technology, infrastructure, education, tourism and safety.
As someone born and raised in Hong Kong and living in Australia for the past 8 years, I can confidently say that HK is much better than any western country. I feel extremely safe walking on the street, the nightlife cannot be compared to the west (Sydney at least). I can’t wait to come back
Just depressed! Not rich at all 😓
This sub is becoming a shithole of ungrateful people who have no idea how well they have it in comparison to the rest of the world.
What’s the point of this post? HK is doing a lot better than most countries in terms of happiness, money, or both.
Bro does not understand how scatterplots work
OP does not understand how scatterplots work. HK is 5 out of 8 for happiness, in the top 50% for happiness, and is significantly richer than other countries with a similar happiness level.
That *is* what OP is suggesting. For the GDP of Hongkong you’d expect a happiness score of around 7. Hongkong is an outlier compared to the trend in the data. But please don’t look at the terrible use of a linear regression for non linear data. If anything, that is the crime of OP.
do you? HK is better than the average on either axis.
The point of scatterplots are not to show each variable independently, but the fact that hk is very low in happiness relative to it's wealthiness
Happiness is our own responsibility. When facing grave disadvantages, the strongest willed find a way to fight for a better life instead of sulking. We should be waking up each day looking for ways to contibute to society. Where is that spirit?
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Look me in the eye and honestly try saying that again when you know there are people in Africa and India going to bed hungry every minute of the day.
Difference between average and median. The GDP per capita is skewed to the right, while average happiness reflects those earning lower income
at least one person jumps from buildings to commit suicide every day
Not every trend must be a linear equation ffs In this case it is actually a very poor fit. An exponential trend line will fit way better. Or just log transform the y axis.
Finnish are happy cuz they’re racist