Have-Nots Squeezed and Stacked in Hong Kong

Bettina Wassener and Grace Tsoi, reporting for the New York Times:

Hong Kong’s economy underwent a major change in the 1980s, when much of the manufacturing activity that made the city famous in the 1950s and ’60s moved across the border to mainland China. In its place came banking, insurance, trading, logistics and real estate — service sectors that now employ nearly 90 percent of the work force but that have been unable to absorb many less educated workers, Mr. Wong said.

At the same time, Hong Kong has some of the highest living costs in the world, a huge and growing burden on those at the bottom of the income ladder.

Think Japanese capsule hotels, but for long-term occupancy. They make micro-apartments appear spacious. Maybe Hong Kong needs to look underground, too.

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