Opinion | Don't take Hong Kong's middle class to be misers

I'm going to call it: the biggest loser of the policy address is the middle class. But it's not because they got "nothing" from the policy address, as Voice of the Middle Class chairman Alvin Lee Chi-wing claimed.

It's true we didn't get any handouts. But since when did the middle class expect handouts from the public purse? And if people who perceive themselves as middle class actually need handouts from the government to make ends meet, then we have a new set of problems.

The reason the middle class is a victim in all this is because its name has been taken in vain. Blame politics. The middle class is so ill-defined that political exploitation is easy. We also have Dominic Lee Tsz-king of the Liberal Party to thank, and all of those who have jumped on the bandwagon.

The Ebenezer Scrooges within the sizeable segment of Hong Kong's middle class might have been the first ones to begrudge the working poor getting a helping hand. But they are a minority.

Hence the picture being painted of a stingy middle class in Hong Kong is very far from the truth. As of last year, Hongkongers are among the top charitable people in the world, ranking 17th out of 153 countries and regions. With 63 per cent of this city's residents donating to charity, we, the middle class, are not the miserly kind.

We understand that the government is actually trying to do something to get people out of poverty. The aim and purpose is to lessen the burden on the welfare system before they become part of it.