Housing support for the “undeserving”: Moral hazard, fires, and laissez-faire in Hong Kong

Abstract

In the wake of the financial crises of 2008 (and counting), understanding the processes of social support, whether for kin or needy strangers (for an insightful discussion of intimate caring by strangers, see Chapter 6, this volume), has become crucially important. However, while narratives of solidarity in hard times and philanthropic gestures may appeal to heartstrings chilled by contemporary suffering, I will argue that to fully understand the processes of social support or care, we should also consider the ways in which tendencies to support can be undermined. Face-to-face encounters are of crucial importance in either encouraging or eroding social support, as Chapter 1 stresses. However, encounters at a distance (see Chapter 3, this volume) or in the form of what Laura Nader calls "face-to-faceless" relationships in the public sphere also have important implications for people’s perspectives on social support, as Fleischer’s discussion (Chapter 7, this volume) of governmental promotion of volunteering in China illustrates. In this chapter, I will examine an important mechanism for undermining sympathies for the sufferings of people experiencing difficulties, such as bankruptcy, poverty, and fire: moral hazard. In explicit terms, moral hazard is a key economic concept, but implicitly it is a form of cultural logic that has become pervasive among the populations of capitalist societies.