Abstract

Globalization often generates a spiral effect affecting not only developing countries and regions but also developed places including Hong Kong. In this article, the researcher reviews the impacts of globalization on social (in)equality using data from Hong Kong authorities. The study argues that although the HKSAR government, just like her neighbors, has taken steps to implement various policies to help citizens cope with various challenges arising from uncertainties under globalization, most of the “well-planned” policies indeed have failed to reduce these negative effects. The study takes the economic crisis as a case study and confirms that more middle-class members have shifted into the lower class and have lost the capability to cope with the adverse effects of the globalization. The researcher also attempts to examine the potential factors that have made the middle class become more squeezed than the past.