"Hongkongers would like things to be better"

Here I quote from a columnist:

"Hongkongers would like things to be better. According to public opinion surveys in recent years, everyone would like their child to have improved life chances at birth. They would prefer it if their wife or daughter had the same odds of surviving maternity as women in other advanced countries. They would appreciate full medical coverage at lower cost, longer life expectancy, better public services, and less crime.

When told that these things are available in Austria, Scandinavia, or the Netherlands, but that they come with higher taxes and an 'interventionary' state, many of those same Hongkongs respond: 'But that is socialism! We do not want the state interfering in our affairs. And above all, we do not wish to pay more taxes.'"

For the last thirty years...when asking ourselves whether we support a proposal or initiative, we have not asked, is it good or bad? Instead we inquire: Is it efficient? Is it productive? Would it benefit gross domestic product? Will it contribute to growth? This propensity to avoid moral considerations, to restrict ourselves to issues of profit and loss - economic questions in the narrowest sense - is not an instinctive human condition. It is an acquired taste."

Agree? Actually the above excerpts are from Tony Judt on The New York Review of Books. Apparently, he is not talking about Hong Kong. Why bother? He refers to America. I simply change the subject "Americans" to "Hongkongers" but it still perfectly fit the situation here in Hong Kong. Agree?

Tony Judt's "What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy?" on The New York Review of Books, Volume 56, Number 20 · December 17, 2009.