The Bicker Board

[TomK]

Do you honestly think I give a toss..

Yes, I do. 

Then you would be wrong.

[ironyak]

HereOnThePrimalEdge - Doesn’t it depend on the billionaire and what they do with their money?
I'll take this on and say no, not really - the existence of billionaires while millions struggle to afford the basics is a sign of a deeply flawed system. Why should Hawaii's residents have to depend on the largess of a local billionaire for local medical facilities, instead of the U.S. returning to the progressive tax structure of the 1950s that enabled enormous investments in infrastructure, paid almost entirely by the top income earners, but with projects prioritized by the people's elected officials?

With the rampant growth of income inequality over the last 50 years, things will continue to get worse for most people going forward unless significant changes are made. While some of y'all may be critical of the Hawaiian system of royalty, you're nonetheless working hard trying to justify people being stuck living like peasants reliant on their local lord. ;)

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

the existence of billionaires while millions struggle to afford the basics is a sign of a deeply flawed system.

I can’t argue with that. Even Benioff didn’t offer his financial assistance to the Big Island medical facilities until after his veiled threat to a local reporter made headlines. So part PR move.

Still, when the comment on Punaweb was made “Don’t they hate billionaires?” there is a grey area to the amount of greed individual billionaires exhibit. It would be preferable if the income and net worth of all of us in Hawaii followed a parallel path upward over the last 50 years. The real question might be, with such disparity in the income gain chart, why are we cutting Medicaid to give more tax breaks to the top 1%, who already have it far far better than we 99%?

[randomq]

You definitely see the top (and to some extent the bottom) doing better, while the middle class gets screwed. I think Hawaii exemplifies this with all the generous social programs that cut out the second you get a job. Live with free food, free health care, and free housing? Or work for ridiculously low wages to pay for ridiculously expensive everything? It's easy to see why some "drop out".

[MyManao]

why are we cutting Medicaid to give more tax breaks to the top 1%, who already have it far far better than we 99%?

Because, rather than recognizing it as a sign of an individual's sickness, we place greed, and the accumulation of wealth, as the highest level of achievement. And, our government works, represents, corporate interests, i.e., greed, over humanity. In our world people are fodder.. nothing more.

So yeah, they give lip service to the little guy.. but that's all it is. Ask the Hawaiians, ask the Native Americans..

[ironyak]

HereOnThePrimalEdge - I can’t argue with that. Even Benioff didn’t offer his financial assistance to the Big Island medical facilities until after his veiled threat to a local reporter made headlines. So part PR move.
I had largely forgotten about that issue. We really are doing a Gilded Age Redux, including the PR image washing of its largest benefactors:
"It’s a lot cheaper for Rockefeller and his colleagues to pay Ivy Lee $1,000 a month to give them a new face than it would be to address the grievances of pay that was too low, hours that were too long, mines that were unsafe, housing that was substandard, and all the rest. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that modern public relations in industrial disputes was born in 1914 with the Rockefeller-Ivy Lee marriage and has continued from that day until the present."

randomq - You definitely see the top (and to some extent the bottom) doing better, while the middle class gets screwed. I think Hawaii exemplifies this ...
There's definitely a squeeze going on pushing people into greater precarity with those social net programs now planned to be cut to give tax breaks for the wealthy thus creating a more permanent underclass. If the tech-bros yearn for a return to company towns, maybe Zuck and Benioff are dreaming of even bigger fiefdoms with company islands? Or maybe Hawaii just has the biggest moat for when things start to really break?

Manao - we place greed, and the accumulation of wealth, as the highest level of achievement
and create a system that reinforces and rewards it. An international competition for dragons to see who can hoard the largest pile extracted from the little people. History shows there is always a breaking point - just not sure how bad it has to get before people take up the lamaku and pitchforks and head up hill to their local dragon's den.

This is entirely too civil a conversation for the so called Bicker Board - so much for truth in advertising!

[Obie]

Here's something to bicker about.

Another multi millionaire destroying a big chunk of Hawaii. Wonder how he's going to benefit the poorest Hawaiian community in Hawaii.

https://www.khon2.com/local-news/10-fact...t-mansion/

[MyManao]

Another multi millionaire destroying a big chunk of Hawaii..

A big chunk of what? Destroying? How so?

It's a part of an established neighborhood, it's three lots consolidated in a pre-existing community. The shoreline access being limited is to hardly any shoreline.. What's being destroyed?

Or, per chance, is that just your "fair and balanced" way at lashing out at things you know nothing about? Seriously Obie.. were you really that poorly educated as to not understand relative sizes, and the meaning of the word destroy? Sheesh brah...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

destroying a big chunk of Hawaii… benefit the poorest Hawaiian community in Hawaii.

As your link indicated, the destroyed 3 parcel consolidated big chunk of property was formerly owned by Gomer Pyle. So gooooolly? Shazam, shazam, shazam?

[Sphamayle]

Here's something to bicker about.

Another multi millionaire destroying a big chunk of Hawaii. Wonder how he's going to benefit the poorest Hawaiian community in Hawaii.


Not that much to bicker about really, nothing being done there that wasn't already being done for generations...and legally so. As for the poorest, he did quite a lot for them during his 8 years compared to his predecessors - and a hell of a lot more than the next guy could even comprehend or understand to do.

Don't like the laws, change them...and the people who make them!