Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China • Hacker News Board

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#181

Post by EdHominem » Fri, Feb 03, 2017, 6:46 PM UTC

RugnirViking wrote: post #178

EdHominem wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh, right, right. The people were given to one country by another. Silly people.

'given' to whom? The only way I can construe this is that the Chinese government 'gave' hong-kong on a 100 year lease and the UK held up this deal. Unless you expect the UK to avoid the deal, which while I wish they could, they aren't in a position to say no to china

They gave the people to another government because of a treaty signed before anyone currently alive was born.

Yes, I do expect the UK to "renege" in the sense that I expect everyone else to support self-government for Hong Kong. Maybe not to fight for it with them, but at least not to support the abusers with petty arguments of legality, etc.

> which while I wish they could, they aren't in a position to say no to china

Right. The same way Taiwan is a separate country, and a great one, but we pretend it's Chinese and essentially property of China because we don't want to get in a fight.

But might doesn't make right. We shouldn't give it the veneer of decency and legality. It's slavery through and through.

If North Korea or Iran acted that way we'd call it like it is.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#182

Post by vecinu » Sun, Feb 05, 2017, 9:20 PM UTC

sanswork wrote: post #133

vecinu wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is correct and the other person who responded to you seems to have the right idea. Look at San Francisco, my friends and coworkers are renting/buying crappy 1943-built, non-renovated 1br units that cost $3k to rent or $700k to buy. They could afford to throw out some more money for something slightly better but it's already a lot of money and pricing everyone out.

Right and in San Francisco there is a ton of people making around the same amount as your friends likely which means there is a lot of competition in their demographic. Now look at the houses priced $10-20m. If you can afford one of those are you going to start buying up the $1m stock because you can't find the one you want or are you going to build the one you want elsewhere?

"San Francisco doesn't allow new construction." as the other poster said, so you're going to buy up the $1m stock of houses.

I also think this "competition" is artificial as a lot of people are signing 30 year mortgages but I highly doubt their salaries will continue growing or even staying at the level they're at now.

Most folks aren't spending within their means.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#183

Post by vecinu » Sun, Feb 05, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #142

vecinu wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is correct and the other person who responded to you seems to have the right idea. Look at San Francisco, my friends and coworkers are renting/buying crappy 1943-built, non-renovated 1br units that cost $3k to rent or $700k to buy. They could afford to throw out some more money for something slightly better but it's already a lot of money and pricing everyone out.

San Francisco doesn't allow new construction. Toronto, on the other hand, is filled with glass 40+ story condos constructed in the last 10 years and there are many more being constructed all the time. We can keep building and exporting new condo units to rich foreigners indefinitely, no different than Boeing constructing and exporting new 787s.

Except by "exporting" those units to foreigners you're not allowing communities to build and that's why you're seeing a huge divide in Toronto between folks.

When I lived there, I felt there was a lot of hidden hatred that won't be painfully obvious to outsiders until something goes really wrong with the economy/foreign policy.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#184

Post by iaw » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 3:40 AM UTC

rbcgerard wrote: post #176

iaw wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I meant what I wrote. He holds properties in Canada, and has diplomatic status from Antigua, but they were purchased and he hasn't shown loyalties to those countries. He didn't take up actual residency in either of the countries, he used their names to suit his international agenda.

How can you asses if has "shown loyalty" to a country? What does residency have to do with anything?

What are an individuals demonstrated motivations for emigrating?

If not residency, then what does the individual want from the country and what will they provide back to the country in return? A resident, theoretically, contributes to the community through more means than just their taxes.

If an individual jumps citizenship as financial protection, or protection from their origin countries investigations into the money they acquired in that country, than their motives for being a citizen isn't loyalty but wealth preservation.

Individuals that use Canada as an asset parking lot wont get much, if any, aid from the Canadian government in events like these. They don't deserve it. I'm happier in a world where the ultra-rich don't benefit hugely from paying Canada to launder their money.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#185

Post by Ka-Ching » Sun, Feb 12, 2017, 7:17 AM UTC

xutopia wrote: post #101

Ka-Ching wrote: post #33

Casablanca in 1942 = Hong Kong today.

I am unfortunately not a student of history. Can you explain what you mean by this?

1. Casablanca the movie was timed to open in 1942 to benefit from the publicity surrounding the just-completed Allied takeover of Casablanca the city. Until November of 1942, this port city in Morocco, which was formerly a part of the French colonial empire, had been under the dual control of Nazi Germany and the Nazi-puppet government in Vichy, France, that the Germans had installed after occupying France in 1940.

2. Nowaday, the situation of Hong Kong looks like Casablanca during World War II.