How the budget surplus is like fiscal bait
What to do with the expected government surplus? Seemingly fringe ideas, if properly executed, can solve several problems that vex us deeply
The financial secretary is expected to announce another big surplus in his budget next week. A surplus is as embarrassing as a deficit. It shows either the officials got their figures wrong, or they nodded off on the job.
Or could it be that failure in their collective imagination has failed Hong Kong? The saving grace is a surplus is like fiscal bait. We all get hooked on it with one wishful thought or another.
Hong Kong is a land of milk and money. The recent milk powder scam and scare proves this. Even back in 2008, mainlanders flocked to Hong Kong to buy milk powder because of the melamine-in-milk scare there. The fact that our compatriots love to buy products here is, no doubt, a compliment to Hong Kong's system of law and order and free trade. It is, nevertheless, a backhanded compliment.
Mainland mothers can shop in trustworthy Hong Kong. This is their choice. Where is the choice for Hong Kong mothers? Breastfeeding should be a realistic choice for mothers here. Yet, as every working mother will tell you, they have problems with breastfeeding as crèches and other facilities are lacking. Without the privacy to feed babies outside the familiar home environment, there is always the risk of being leered at by curious colleagues or salacious strangers.
