Is Hong Kong's political crisis being fuelled by a lack of opportunity for young people?
"I want to change my family's life. In Hong Kong they have to work hard to pay the high rent," he told me, the emotion spilling out of his eyes. "Now when I grow up I cannot do that. The job vacancies are lower than before [and] when we graduate in three years the situation [will be] much lower.
""When I graduate, I think I'll live with my family," she tells me."It is very difficult to get a flat here... buying is not realistic."The structure of Hong Kong's houses are also very small - I will spend a lot of money to buy a small flat and that will limit the imagination of my life." Young people like Dicky and Leung are grappling with three big economic challenges: wages aren't rising, the job market is increasingly competitive, and property prices are surging. While the reasons for the political protests are complex, and aren't to do with buying a home or getting a job - many young people in Hong Kong feel ignored by decades of poorly-planned government policies.Competition for a place in one of Hong Kong's top universities is fierce, but even if you do get a spot and graduate, a good job or stable income isn't guaranteed.Chan Wai-Keung, a lecturer at Hong Kong Polytechnic, says in the 1990s, the salary starting point of fresh graduates was around HK$ 25,000 . Nowadays he says it is maybe just HK$ 28,000.Chan Wai-Keung says education needs modernised"Our education programme is old fashioned," Mr Chan told me. "Our economy is dominated by a handful of powerful families, who made a fortune in the property market. They are reluctant to invest in high tech industries or innovative ideas. "Our government pays lip service to the high-tech development. Even if young people want to get into this new industry there's not a lot of good chances for them."Those bleak job prospects have meant that things like buying a home are out of reach for most Hong Kongers, except for the lucky few - like Karidie Chow. A tech worker with an international firm in the city, she borrowed money from her mother to buy a flat with her brother. "It's quite difficult to own a home in Hong Kong and the prices of the apartments [kept] rising in the past few years," she tells me."That's why we chose to buy the flat this year, because the prices will keep going up."Her flat set her back more than $500,000 , and measures a tight 276 sq feet . She, her brother and her boyfriend will all live in it together - something that she says is not unusual because of how costly property is here.
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