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As a long time Kona resident*, I love everything about Hawaii and get tired of hearing all the complaints about high prices and other negatives. Prices are higher, but "perks" balance it out. Isn't it worth it to have perfect weather, gentle lifestyle, safety, longest life expectancy, clean air, and peace? To dress for comfort and not fad and fashion trend, where cars are transportation and not status symbols? Hawaii tax is 4%. For comparison, New York tax is 8.25%, along with broiling summers, freezing winters, bumper to bumper traffic from almost daily accidents, widespread discrimination, corruption, streets full of pot holes or no street signs on them, dangerous icy roads, high unemployment, and a very depressed economy. Other Mainland states with lower prices suffer floods, tornadoes, mud slides, earthquakes, smog, brush fires, riots, dust storms, derailed trains, heat waves, gang warfare, ice storms, illegal aliens, drive-by shootings, boatloads of refugees, terrorists, bombings, militant demonstrations, hail, sleet, snow, racial conflicts, snakes and blizzards. Gas is $2 a gallon, but, with everything close by, we drive fewer miles. Many other countries charge $4-$6 a gallon. Kailua-Kona ocean front homes are $1 million, but they are $5 million in California and $8 million in Australia. Think of the world's richest people. Oil sheiks have to live in hot, barren deserts. It does not matter how many servants or piles of money they have, they can't spend much time outdoors and there is nothing to look at anyway. The Queen of England has jewels, money, castles and servants but has to live in the cold, dark, dreary, dismal England. America's tycoons live in hectic California and New York - even with their billions, they suffer to some extent from the conditions named above. Personal wealth can't change weather, crime, taxes, urban sprawl, government policy, road conditions, nor can it buy peace. I feel richer than the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Trumps. Rich as they are, they don't live here, they have to live near their holdings. Rich and famous celebrities can't live here either, their work keeps them trapped on the Mainland most of the time. They may enjoy short vacations here but pay plenty for it. We are the really rich ones - we get to live here all the time! Anyone who thinks Hawaii is undesirable, needs to live somewhere else for a year! Despite some higher costs, I know of people all around the world who are jealous of what even the low income Hawaii residents are lucky to have. I sold everything and left the city I was living in on a cold, drizzly, miserable January day of about 30 degrees. The trees were bare. I landed in a lush, beautiful, warm, tropical paradise with wild canaries and mynah birds. I thought,"They actually let people live here?" I threw away coats, sweaters, etc., fell in love with the gentle pace and ultra-casual lifestyle, and knew I'd stay forever. Many years later, I am still in awe of this very special place, where it conveniently only rains at night, houseplants I babied on the Mainland grow outdoors like weeds, tropical fish don't even need a heated aquarium and it's spring every day. *(Written in 1994 but even after 20 years later I still feel the same!) |