Hello Mr. Wolf, won't you please sit down?

[mella l]

Average cost of a residential kilowatt hour in Hawaii during 2003: 16.73 cents (highest average rate in the USA) ...from "Figure 4. U.S. Electric Industry Residential Average Retail Price of Electricity by State, 2003 (Cents per kWh)"

Wow and the current price is somewhere around 43 center per kWh? What am I missing here?



mella l

"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these."

[JWFITZ]

The basic problem with grid distribution of power is that over half of it gets lost in transmission, which is why at this moment you can easily with an inexpensive generator make power on site for less money than you can buy it, even in spite of the fact that you're buying fuel at retail costs.

[Scott_S]

Take your entire electric bill and divide by you kwh usage, the cost becomes more like 60 cents per kwh. If I didn't have a paid off sspp and hooked up already I would most assuredly look at a generator and a battery bank.

[JWFITZ]

Or more to the point of this post, if you've got any money at Merryl Lynch or Washington Mutual get it out now and put it somewhere else! Bank of Hawaii is a good bet, thank god!

[JWFITZ]

Now that this topic is 3 months or so old, I'd like to re-raise the issue and ask if the consensus opinion about the "negativity" of my initial assertions was perhaps unwarranted, of whether now we can more as a group be aware of the reality of where we are going--and lastly really how very important our task is becoming.

[Devany]

This has to be one of the best threads I have seen lately on ANY forum! Bravo.

Sustainability, caring for the earth, thinking before we speak, living in Aloha, helping others and building community in both the larger and smaller sense is so important and even more important on an island.

One of our goals in moving to Hawaii is to give back in some way to the community. Another is to get away from the fast paced corporate world that my husband had to "sell his soul" to in order to get to this place in our life. Since his retirement he has become so much happier and we look forward to our life in Hawaii. I especially look forward to becoming a part of more than just a virutal community on the island.

Mahalo for starting this thread and contributing to it.

[quote]Originally posted by pslamont

G R I N

You all pretty much know me and know that I am the poster child for these issues. I keep giving people a chance and they keep taking advantage of me. I keep on doing it anyway. I share. I trust. I help. It's not always the best but I do MY best. Guess what, every once in a while, someone benefits in a way that empowers them.. maybe gives them a little bump over a hump and they get on with life in a better way

And no matter how burned I get, I just keep looking at the next face thinking..... this one deserve a chance. Okay, so sometimes I am an idiot. I admit it. So what?


Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com

[JWFITZ]

I think the need for building community is becoming very dire. Let's look in a real and honest manner of what we face.

1) The elderly and those about to retire at this moment have by and large lost their retirement incomes. At this moment, this morning, more or less all growth in real estate equity or more or less any instrument other than treasuries has lost all of the last 10 years returns. I don't believe these valueations will ever return, but even if one assumed they did, historically 10 years to get back to the break even point is certainly not an unreasonable time frame. At any rate, few will be in a position to retire as they had expect. Since even over the last period or relative wealth, the majority ended up on public assistence at some point, we need to realize that this overly burdened and underfunded system will be pushed to the breaking point.

Result: We must find ways of providing valuable and meaningful gainful employment for our elderly, and realize that the lion's share of the responsibility of caring for our own will fall into our own laps. Zoning, housing regulation as the rest need to respect the real need on the ground and flexibility needs to be written into the law, allowing people to take care of extended families in the manner that they are able, and in a permittable manner. For example, the debate about the whole "ohana" dwelling here needs to become a lot more humane, real quick.

2) Of those of working class age, we need to realize that wages will be stagnant and opportunities for growth few. Certainly those of "home buying" age at the moment are not going to be in the position of using the "capital" in their home as a de facto third income. As well, the last decade has enjoyed(ahem) historically low and unrealistic taxation. This will change. Working class families will earn less, and lose more of their earning to taxation. Health care and education costs will continue to rise disproportionally to the deflationary environment, and many families will just go without.

Result: Community will matter, in a emotional, social, and financial manner. Dollars will need to go further. When you purchase, or hire consider what that dollar will do and where it will go--and what sort of behaviors it encourages. Hire those who share your values and in a real and measurable manner do give to the community. Spending money on big foolish rims on your pickup is an anti-social act--and needs to be seen as such. So is investing in foreign(to the community) corporations for your own gain when that money could help support the community here. Purchase little, but re-enforce ideas and ideology by seeking out and rewarding respectful and constructive behavior. Invest in those who invest in you. Your future depends on it.

3) Of those still young and in school, they will be condemned to facing an ever harder future with fewer skills, while school districts in general try to provide education with thinner and thinner budgets. Since the public school system is every bit as much a social services agency as well as education, if not more so, the climate of stress and poverty at home can only make the educational environment worse.

Result: Kids need all the help they can, and they're not going to learn much at school. Realize that all of us need to be mentors and educators. Give a kid a job. Pay they too much. Teach them something.

Here is a place to start.

[Hotzcatz]

I've noticed more connectivity in the community this past year. Folks are getting together and sharing views on gardening, sharing extra stuff, car pooling into town, that sort of stuff.

My neighbor and I are actively trying to help folks set up tiny hydroponic gardens. Growing lettuce in milk jugs, actually. It gets folks started on producing their own food and empowers them to grow more and different things when their lettuce works out.

Perhaps I am seeing more connectivity in the community since my neighbor and I are out there chatting with more people, but even the guys seem to be off doing projects together, so it's not just the girls gathering for support sessions.

Start in small little ways, call your neighbor and see if they want to ride along next time you go to town. Ask if anyone wants anything picked up from Costco next time you go. If you call when you can help them, they will call when they can help you.

The wolf is at the door and folks are beginning to be very alarmed. Met someone today who was driving a Ford F250 all the way over to Costco (at 8 mpg or less) so they could "fill it up with canned goods" since they aren't certain the barges are going to continue to run or that they will be able to afford the prices they expect food to reach. That might be a bit of an over-the-top sort of reaction to the financial huhu of the past week or so, but then again, maybe that is a proper reaction.

[AlohaSteven]

Good observations and suggestions, Hotzcatz! Encouraging to hear.


"Met someone today who was driving a Ford F250 all the way over to Costco (at 8 mpg or less) so they could "fill it up with canned goods" since they aren't certain the barges are going to continue to run or that they will be able to afford the prices they expect food to reach. That might be a bit of an over-the-top sort of reaction to the financial huhu of the past week or so, but then again, maybe that is a proper reaction."

My best friend's family when I was a kid were Mormons and as part of their system his mom was always so conscientious about keeping a one year supply of food stocked at all times, constantly rotating forward the oldest dry goods and canned goods while replenishing the back of the same shelf with new stock, marking dates on everything. The theology never made much sense or held any appeal to me but the LDS practice of maintaining a year's supply of food for the family at all times seemed quite admirable and practical. For one thing, they purchased in bulk when good sales were going on saved cash that way, as well as doing lots of canning of excess produce and gleaned fruit. My family canned hundreds of quart jars every year, too, but these folks really had it down to a science with all sorts of dry goods from powdered milk to rice and beans to you name it. Jim's mom made sure the advance menu planning (she had the whole year outlined) used everything up without becoming monotonous, either; I always enjoyed eating over there.

Recent examples give ample evidence indicating folks cannot expect the government to come in and save everyone or fix everything if there is a "natural" disaster (which actually usually means "a totally predictable occurrence of natural processes just as expected in an area where people have decided to build up in large numbers" -but occasionally really is something outside of reasonable expectation). Well prepared self-reliance is not only practical but also allows us to be of assistance to others rather than only being a potential burden upon our community. Most everyone pulls the short straw sometime, sooner or later, after all, and could use some assistance from friends and neighbors. Those who would appreciate such assistance should be realistically and tangibly prepared to give it, as well, imho, if the positions were reversed.



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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

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[DickWilson]

Having a years worth or so of non-perishable food on hand is just good sense. Not only for the reasons AlaskaStevens outlined but also as a emergency supply for natural disasters. If you look at the Katrina disasters and the lines trying to get food, you pretty much have to see the sense in the practice. You can also help out the neighbors, most of whom will have failed to plan ahead, as well as trade for any supplies you haven't stocked yourself. Especially in an island economy I would think everyone would subscribe to this philosophy. I know from PW that many posting here will or like us already do, Hopefully more folks will recognize the desirability of doing so. Before the economy really hits bottom and it's to late.

dick wilson