Jake's View | Try this for an idea: Hong Kong’s fiscal surplus gives us the ability to cut taxes and spur innovation
With HK$2 trillion in surplus, it’s ridiculous to talk of saving money for the proverbial 'rainy day'. Cutting taxes would spur people to devote their intellectual powers to innovation in ways that we cannot imagine.
The financial secretary has emphasised previously that he would rather invest more in the city’s future and spend in areas such as innovation than give out money to everyone. -- SCMP, February 24
What a waste of breath it is to talk about investing in the future. It is like saying that you undertake a journey in order to reach your destination.
All investment is investment in the future. You forego spending of your money today in order that you may have more money or create better conditions for spending it tomorrow. No one invests in the past.
Well ... ahem ...
That is to say that very few people do so but, of those who do, a good number are to be found in the ranks of our bureaucracy. They do it every time they talk about putting money into innovation. They mean well but innovation is something they do not understand.
For starters, they are bureaucrats, people who take directives rather than conceiving them. At their top ranks, they take directives from government headquarters in that globe-topped building in western district. They don’t do new things.
