Jake's View | Hong Kong's industry subsidies suppress rather than stimulate entrepreneurship
Having established how this town came to achieve its wealth, our financial secretary then loudly proclaimed that he did not think it could be done any longer and people would need his money to succeed in the future.
Legends of rags to riches live on for generations. Many entrepreneurs started their business without much experience, technology or capital. But their flexibility and market acumen have opened up new opportunities in different trades and markets.
Having established how this town came to achieve its wealth, our financial secretary then loudly proclaimed that he did not think it could be done any longer and people would need his money to succeed in the future.
Make no mistake. That was what he effectively said in his budget speech when he followed his tribute to Hong Kong's entrepreneurial spirit by scattering billions of dollars among a selection of favoured industries that he and his colleagues wished to encourage.
And the sad thing about it all is that these handouts will probably have the effect of making the dire prognosis come true. Subsidies of this nature do more to suppress than to stimulate entrepreneurial spirit.
One way in which they do it is by ignoring cost. The money for these subsidies does not float down from heaven. Through a range of taxes, duties, hidden land-use costs and other exactions, it all comes out of your pocket in the end.