These days, everywhere you turn, you can't escape the news of how hot our local economy has been. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau reported that in 2005, Hawaii has had the most tourists in one year, ever ... 7 million people. We welcome these visitors to our land since they bring money to spend in our local economy. Hotels, restaurants, the many businesses and the State have all enjoyed the windfall of money spent in our economy. It's almost as if we've forgotten how bad things were just a few years ago. How many of us remember how difficult it was after 9/11 and when the economy took a nose dive? Sure, you could argue that many people lost their jobs and small business owners took the biggest hit, but it's hard to argue that we are making the most of this economic boon to our shores.
A recent study shows that Hawaii tops the nation in the price of rentals. We live in paradise, but pay for it in an extremely high cost of living and a housing market that exposes the disparity between the have's and the have-nots. Nowhere else in the United States do young college educated professionals live with their parents until their late 20's or beyond. Nowhere else, do 25 year olds drive leased 3-series BMWs, tout designer hand bags and take regular trips to Hawaii's favorite vacation spot, Las Vegas - all while still living with the parents. Why do we continue to squander these good economic times by simply throwing away all that we have earned by dumping it into frivolous materalistic goods that will not give us any sort of return instead of turning around and making some sort of investment that will pay us some sort of dividend in the future? Why do we travel thousands of miles to the middle of the desert so we can dump thousands and thousands of hard earned dollars into the economy of Las Vegas, Nevada? The Nevada Gaming Commission must love how every day, hundreds of local people travel to their casinos just to give their hard earned money away. How much money do we lose on a daily, weekly and yearly basis, simply by going to Las Vegas (Hawaii's Favorite Vacation Destination!) and losing our shirts in an attempt to hit that oh-so-elusive jackpot?
Sure, we all know someone's aunty who hit it big over at the California Hotel. Afterall, everyone knows that you have a better chance of winning at a downtown casino than somehwere on the strip? We all see the headlines in the Advertiser or Star Bulletin when a local person wins a big payout in Nevada. What we don't see is all of the money that is simply lost. Money that could have been spent and better used by keeping it here in Hawaii. It's a vicious cycle of visitors spending their money here in Hawaii to have it leave when a local family goes to Las Vegas and blows $10,000 on a 4 day trip. I guess roundtrip airfare, transfers and food vouchers for $350 per person makes up for the $2,000 that you lose during your short weekend trip to Vegas, right?
It's time for us to wake up and realize that we are squandering away these great economic times. Instead of building urban cores that foster growth and curb urban sprawl, we decide instead to expand on suburbia and extend our need on oil to fuel our economy. What happens when the price of oil goes so high that airlines can't fly here on a regular basis and ships can't bring our rice and toilet paper to our ports? Do we think that cheap oil will last forever and that we will always have a steady stream of tourists to dump millions of dollars into our economy?
How about this little exercise. Think back to post 9/11 Hawaii. More specificaly, think back to post 9/11 Waikiki. Remember how the streets were empty and the hotels were practically begging us locals to come out and stay there? Remember how stores closed in Ala Moana and how bars and restaurants had to cut shifts of their employees? Well, times like that could very well happen again sometime in the near future. I doubt a trip to Vegas, with the hopes of hitting it big, will make you feel better then.
