optimistic view of the future

[Guest]

Well here is a bit of optimism.

Southwest Airlines is looking at ways to get Flights to Hawaii via other carriers by 2009.

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It is the way, the way it is

[JayJay]

With you grandmother being born in 1892 the Industrial Revolution was well underway. For example, its genesis actually began in May, 1844 with Morse, i.e., Washington to Boston with the coded message "What hath God Wrought?"
This was the beginning of the revolution, since at that moment man became capable of using electrons for industrial purposes and of course it should be noted that this was an American invention as were most basic innovations including the transistor (Brattain), which ushered in solid state electronics and eventually digital electronics. Your grandmother saw a major segment of the revolution but not the entire compendium.

As to health care for those retiring to the Big Island. Yes the system is essentially dearth to provide on-going high quality health care but, (and I do think it will always lag behind), nothing gets done without the attribute of demand, As the demographics change due to the influx of more wealthy individuals ... I think we can reasonably expect the demand for higher quality medical sevices to increase to some extent.

Our state leadership missed the boat years ago ... the sugar industry was [here] in freefall yet any emphisis comming from those in power stayed with tourism ... it was like their minds were totally conditioned to perceive that industry as the sole answer to the island's looming economic woes to the exclusion of all others with the exception of high-tech which was always a herring. Had those individuals correctly observed and guided the market appropriately by advocating the Big Island as a 'paradisial setting' for retirement, then much of those funds which flowed into Southern and Central Florida, The Carolinas, Arizona and even Mexico and Cosa Rica, could have, hell, would have- ended up here! True - had this been done there would have been, to some extent, a cultural uproar as many local inhabitants would have objected to the arrival of more people from the mainland, yet in the long run I believe we would have been worlds ahead as an island community since those retirees could have come with equity and montlhy checks which to a great extnt would have been plowed back into the local economy with the only downside being, initially, a slight dilution of cultural identity. Jobs - and lots of them, would have been created in support of those individuals ... contractors, even now, wouldn't be up against the wall and state and local coffers would have swelled due to the increased tax base fueled by new construction that such a system would have produced. The problems which exist today in Hawaii are almost entirely caused by a lack of appropriate leadership in the past ... a leadership which was, for the most part, provential and inflexible ... and that includes being essentially dependant on the burning of bunker fuel for the lion's share of our electrical production but that's another story.

JayJay

[rbakker]

Another possibility is an economic injection from people who are able to work from home. If all you need is a laptop and an internet connection then you can live anywhere in the world and still make good money. My guess is that many people would choose Hawaii in that situation. The lack of internet infrastructure is a missed opportunity, great swaths of Puna still don't have any access to broadband.