Apparently the rise of both property prises and inequality have led to a sad state of things: some young people are pinning their dreams on acquiring public housing rather than advancing their careers.
Young people have come to covet subsidized housing so much that some, as seen in local online forum, are starting view public housing as a “life goal” and comparing it to winning the Mark-Six lottery, reports the Hong Kong Economic Journal.
An 18-year-old male, who called himself Gary, told his fellow forum-readers that young people should avoid taking on full-time jobs. Instead, they should freelance so that their income does not surpass $14,000—thus qualifying them for public housing. He claimed that once one gets public housing, one can look for any job to their heart’s desire.
Gary compared it to levelling up in a video game, and did indeed seem to know how to game the system: he added that the government only checks public housing tenants’ income levels biannually after the first ten years, so that they didn’t have to worry about making more money.
Well, that’s disturbing. Apparently, netizens were divided as to how to see this young man: some saw him as freeloader with no ambitions, while other supported his plan.
Photo: Kwai Chun Court, a subsidized housing estate in Kwai Chung (by Ricky36 via Wikimedia)
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