[luau] our economy

[Gary Dunn]

On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, R. Scott Belford wrote:

> On Thursday 20 February 2003 08:32 pm, Stan Baptista wrote:
> >
> > So how does Hawaii expect to attract and keep high
> > quality technical talent and businesses when they can
> > do so much better elsewhere?  Frankly, I have yet to
> > hear any answer other than "lucky live Hawaii" when I
> > inquire about the salary situation.  Well, I
> > guess...maybe, but it's not a very satisfactory
> > answer.  
> 
> begin rant
> I have come to hate this phrase.  This and the "price of paradise."  They 
> seem to excuse every market inefficiency and economic incongruity we have.  
> They distort basic laws of economics by enabling one to justify non-market 
> rates simply because of our location.  They create an economic myth that is 
> simply not true.  I find that greed, the fact that we border on being an 
> isolated second world government, and unchecked corruption are the true 
> contributors to our staggering economic discrepancies.  A simple solution is 
> not so easily stated.
> end rant

Last Tuesday a group informally calling ourselves the Cyberzone launched a
new effort to address this issue. The new forum is called Futurezone. We
meet at Shriner's Hospital on the third Tuesday of every month (sorry
about that, HOSEF!). This week's panel discussion was about opportunities
for Hawaii businessmen in China. There were more questions than answers,
more frustration than satisfaction, but three things emerged: 1) Doing
business in Asia requires strong personal relationships, and this puts
Hawaii at an advantage due to time zone coverage, 2) Although tourists
from China will be rare, college-level training, especially in travel
industry, is strong and growing, 3) with the Olympics in China in 2006
(8?) there is already a lot of work in architecture and environmental
engineering.

If you would like to get on the mailing list, send a request to Marty
Plotnick <martycri at lava.net>

A personal observation: Nothing is done in Hawaii that can be done
somewhere else. So, if you are a tech person, your future here will most
likely depend on supporting an activity that is best done here. Tourism,
the military, state and local government, home repairs for movie stars
living on Maui.

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