Hong Kong no longer makes anything, but makes its living largely by providing trading, logistics and tourism services mainly for mainland Chinese clients, and financial and professional services in connection with the city's financial hub. Other than the financial and professional services, many of the services provided by the city are low-end, and by some accounts trending down.
The past decade has also seen a staggering concentration of wealth in the property sector. The overspill of wealth from the mainland caused prices to go through the roof until they were artificially suppressed by the various stamp duties slapped on by the administration. Young people have become increasingly disillusioned as their hopes for acquiring wealth through owning a home diminish. High property prices have crowded out other riskier, more innovative economic activities and turned those without homes against the landed class.
Where education and skills are concerned, in the past few decades, our education authorities have largely succeeded in expanding mass education but at considerable cost to the standards of elite schools, so much so that many have converted themselves into "direct subsidy schools" to acquire greater freedom in setting their curriculum and raising resources.
Parents who want their children to be globally competitive scramble to put them in direct subsidy, international or independent schools, while more and more "practical" subjects, like tourism and hospitality studies, are introduced to cater for students at the low end. The polarisation of knowledge and skills translates into the polarisation of opportunity, another source of discontent to young people with limited scope for upward social mobility.
Adding to all these woes we now have the heated constitutional debate on how to elect the chief executive in 2017. Many Hongkongers oppose any attempt by Beijing to limit the field of candidates to trustworthy patriots. On the face of it, it is a matter of Beijing versus Hong Kong people in allowing the people a "real choice". But, essentially, it is about whether Hong Kong people are willing to support the national goal of safeguarding sovereignty, security and developmental interest, or insist on going the other way.
Void of deep-rooted sectarian or ethnic divides, the political cleavage in Hong Kong has always been about China. In their rebellious moment, some demonstrators might wish to be rid of constraints imposed by the centre. But Hong Kong might well fall to pieces if the centre cannot hold.