Customer Reviews

The Price of Paradise : Lucky We Live Hawaii?

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was rummaging through the used book sale at the Makiki library and I came across this volume. It was dated 1992, so I almost passed. I mean, what can a discussion about property and tourist taxes, and housing costs, and public schools, and golf courses, and rapid transit, and high rents written over 15 years ago be good for now? Hasn't everything changed?

Apparently not.

This volume contains short (3-7 page) overviews, analyses, and opinionated viewpoints written by knowledgeable folk. Here are the chapters:

1. Hawaii's competitiveness
2. Population size
3. Cost of living
4. Foreign investment
5. Interisland fairness
6. Paternalistic government
7. Government size
8. Government efficiency
9. Role of government
10. Sewage problems
11. Government spending: smoke and mirrors
12. Tax hell?
13. Level of taxes
14. Tourist taxes
15. Taxing retirement income
16. Excise taxes
17. Taxing food and medical care
18. Property taxes
19. Property-tax fairness
20. Business taxes
21. Cost of housing
22. High rents
23. Speculators
24. Affordable housing requirement
25. Golf courses
26. Development fees
27. Water policy
28. Ballot-box zoning
29. Leasehold conversion
30. Native Hawaiian claims
31. Women and jobs
32. Public schools
33. University of Hawaii
34. Airport expansion
35. Funding rapid transit
36. Out-migration
37. Welfare
38. Hawaii's future

It is extraordinary how so many of these chapters seem as if they could have been written today. The authors sometimes lean left, and sometimes right of the political spectrum. The editor (Randall Roth) wanted all authors to avoid dullness. If you are interested in this topic, then he probably succeeded.

Here are a few issues I picked up on:

"We worry that Hawaii's entire economy is held aloft by a single thread called tourism. Recall, if you will, the effect on our local economy of the 1985 United Airlines strike, Operation Desert Storm, and the 1991-1992 national recession. If something goes wrong with Hawaii's tourism, will the entire economy shut down" (p. 3).

Since then, we've had the 9/11 terrorism attacks and the 2008-09 global recession. Both of these really hurt the tourist industry in Hawaii, and the current (8/09) visitor arrival figures and hotel occupancy rates continue to fall. Add to this the predicted sea level rise over the next 100 years of 1 to 2 meters (Waikiki is underwater), and the question, "If something goes wrong with Hawaii's tourism, will the entire economy shut down" seems exceptionally appropriate.

"In government, promotions seldom are based on productivity. Other factors prevail, such as keeping an agency out of trouble ('covering up' effectively) or being well-liked or not rocking anyone's boat" (p. 59). "The reason no government is efficient is because there is no risk, no bottom line, no effective way to light a fire under workers who see no connection between their employer's success and their own job security. How do you motivate a protected bureaucracy?" (p. 61).

This is always brought up when discussing state agency operations in Hawaii.

I learned that the higher product prices in Hawaii were not really a function of the added transportation costs, but more tied with businesses having to maintain a larger inventory than on the mainland to ensure a continuous flow of product to consumers.

Political cartoons from both major newspapers are used liberally throughout. There was one by Corky that I really liked dealing with Hanauma Bay. A visitor is trying to get in, but the guy taking reservations is on the phone, saying "Reservations... for four?... I have nothing 'till next Tuesday..." (p. 96).

Those long lines with an hour wait today still have people wishing they could make reservations (although it is always closed for maintenance on Tuesday).

You want to live and work in Hawaii? Books like this one will help bring reality to dreams of paradise!

Dinged one star merely because it needs an update.

I had to write an economics paper, and one particular chapter was very helpful for me. The chapters were all editorials on different aspects of the finances of living in Hawaii. They are very throughough and appear to be accurate. The dialog is easy to read, and there are amusing cartoons. It is a fun and easy book to explore if you want this sort of information. The topics are interesting, which I didn't think was possible since the overall subject is economics. Overall, interesting and informative.