No, not me. Today’s idiot is Mr. K. Singh in Mid Levels, who seems to believe that maids in Hong Kong are paid too much and should not have any days off. Here is his letter in full:

There have been calls for maids to be given a pay restoration.

Recently, helpers have received a 3 per cent pay rise whereas a civil service pensioner, like myself who worked for 40 years here, got just a 0.5 per cent rise. A helper here can buy land within two years working in Hong Kong and then build a brick and cement house in the next two years and then decorate and furnish it in the following two years. Can a single person in Hong Kong do that?

I live in a 400 sq ft flat, raised and educated my two children in it on a single civil servant’s pay. I couldn’t afford to buy a bigger flat. In Hong Kong a middle class couple finds it very hard to provide for children’s education as it is not cheap. Both parents have to work and therefore need a helper to look after the children and the home.

The Hong Kong government makes sure that maids are provided with servant quarters but, on the other hand, does not make any provisions for them when building the majority of flats, which are no better than chicken coops. Maids get Sundays and public holidays with no thoughts to working parents, who also need rest and a social life of their own. Hong Kong children and their parents should enjoy public holidays, away from their rabbit hutches and in the open air.

Those people who have called for better pay for maids, should try living in a typical Hongkonger’s shoes – make your children share their room with their helper and struggle to pay the exorbitant mortgage on the doll’s house that you live in.

So this guy is complaining that he’s so poor he can barely afford a maid. Although as others have noted, the civil service in Hong Kong is among the most highly compensated in the world. The helpers got a 3% pay rise on a salary that’s roughly US$400 per month. That means they got a raise of US$12 per year. I wonder how much Mr. Singh’s pension is but I’m sure his 0.5% increase represents a larger dollar gain.

I love his assertion that a helper working here for two years can buy land. Let’s say the average helper earns HK$3,500 per month. Let’s say they’re thrifty and spend only $500 per month, banking the rest. And let’s say that we’re talking about one of the very few who does not send all of that money back to the Philippines to support their family. $3,000 per month for two years is $72,000. WHERE THE FUCK CAN YOU BUY A PIECE OF LAND IN HONG KONG FOR $72,000???? What does that get you? One square foot alongside a road outside of Yuen Long? And then build an entire house for another $72,000? Well, I guess if your house is just one square foot, $72k might be enough.

On a bigger nature, this flake doesn’t seek to question why things are so expensive in Hong Kong. He doesn’t understand that the real issue is why a two income family can only afford a 400 square foot (government subsidized) flat in our fair city. Rather than write a letter that would attack the real issues, his argument mostly falls under the heading of “I got a shit deal in life so everyone else should be in the shit as well.”

Now while I generally steer clear of criticizing the SCMP these days, because I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me, I continually wonder why they devote precious space in their letters page to letters of this nature.

Hongkie Town
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