Satan's Luau

I think if you read a lot of the media reports, the statements made by politicos, developers, businesses, etc ... that it is easy to get the impression that this place is for sale

Well, what happens when you say you "are open for business", it really means that things about this place are for sale ... a place in our marketplace, your piece of the lava, your beachfront property in ewabeach LOL, etc.

It makes me think that some things like aff hsg, preserving small biz, etc., all of these things become interestingly problematic when more and more things are "for sale"

A really sobering demographic statistic that I learned about a few years ago makes me wonder about the direction of things here. I think it is easy to say that people like me who write about these things are being too provincial or backwards ... but face up to it, when the breakdown of people who live here is now about 50% people "born and raised here" and 50% people from other places, it does mean something

It means that you cannot expect everyone to see the world the same way, you cannot expect them to share your values ... and honestly, there is no way to resolve this issue, you can't prequalify someone before they come to live here as either appropriate or inappropriate ... we just take their cash and go here's your piece of paradise

And I guess no one is concerned that that means that we are also saying if you can't afford it, then go get your piece of the ninth island, LV. Remember, we are for sale, it is more important to house people from elsewhere who can pay much more than most current residents can

I didn't vote for the current governor, and I don't think that current ideas that we can grow our way out of many of our issues really makes sense ... has anyone really looked at the common sense of our island, like there is limited space, there is limited resources, there is scarcity as far as the eye can see

I always find it interesting that every morning, I walk across the "campus" at my work place ... then look across the quad to the DMV and always see a big line of people waiting for it to open. And 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the people are clearly teenagers trying to get licenses ... seeing how people here cope with extra drivers by ADDING another car, is this a good social policy to encourage people to drive as soon as "responsibly possible"?

So back to the original question ... to whom does this place belong? De facto nowadays it is for sale to the highest bidder. Do we really want to live in a place so driven by economics ... gas, housing, taxes, cheap consumption (costcowalmartcircuitcityitis), low paying jobs, etc.?

It is almost naive nowadays to say oh, I want to live here because I like the alohaspirit ... all of it is overshadowed by the "price of paradise", which is just another way of bringing home the reality that it GD costs a lot to live here, and it means more to raise funds than get along with someone else, your neighbor, or take time out to make a difference in your community ... after all, there is money that needs to be made

And you can buy your way into the society ... there is really no need for a social fabric built on being a good neighbor or showing some a-spirit, why would you? ... hey you can make double off the house you bought compared to your purchase price ... you could move to a better neighborhood ... you could use some of it to pay for private school or college ...

Although it shows how much the rat race is ingrained in us, to either keep up with the Joneses ... or to make our lives better no matter in a competitive way that doesn't take into account what effects that has to others or the environment

I guess maybe all of the complainers, including me, are naive ... maybe why the social experiment worked here previously is that everyone was basically poor, so why would anyone try to differentiate themselves as better than anyone else ... all you would have is the respect of others, and you had to rely on them

When you are "open for business" and make everything for sale to the buyer who can pay the most ... you are saying it is okay to trample on others who have previously enjoyed something ... or more generally, you don't care about the public interest so long as someone pays in cash

I read this other editorial one sunday where an azn who relocated here maybe 25 or so years ago was talking about how he senses things have changed ... and that he felt things were becoming more like the continguous, and even he didn't like it ... and it seemed as if his reasons were similar to mine, the sense of community here is disappearing and there is this class struggle emerging ... and a greater feeling of racism growing

You don't have a community when you let individuals run free ... you don't have good traffic flow when you let people get unlimited numbers of cars ... you don't have a healthy housing market when most of the people who live here can't buy one ... you don't have balance in the environment when you let high value, luxury developers pick and choose nice spots which the public once enjoyed ... and you don't have a healthy economy when no one who could do the "grunt" work can afford to live here ... you aren't curbing growth when people are still popping out 3 kids per family (I am not suggesting let's be China about it, but still ... do you honestly need to add three kids to an already stretched out common family

A crash will come and I guess I feel fortunate that it is unlikely to occur until I am much older ... I just don't understand why the people in power now aren't paying attention to how it will affect not our generation but the next one

It's like when you were a kid and put the baloon over the hose pipe and turned on the water ... eventually you have to turn it off, but sometimes you just get mesmerized by how it is growing and growing and growing ... until yes, you are all wet