Follow Trail of Money...off the island

Speaking with a Hawaiian national born and raised on Island, who had worked for the Department of Transportation for over 20 years, I found to my surprise that the State of Hawaii has hardely any federal labor jobs anymore. Unlike in the mainland Great Depression era when people were handed government jobs, Hawaii now outside firms contracted to do insfrastructure projects. Say for example the Department of Transportation, a branch of the State that used to build roads with obstructing bike lines. Odd? Yes! Incompetant? No. The ways that Hawaiian civilians used to construct projects for the Department of Transportation was inadequate, but nonetheless gave jobs to hard working honest people - keeping capital in the community. Now, we have international firms or Asian conglomerates transported to Hawaii for a project which they accomplish in half the time, with half the resources, possibly half better, but take more than half of the money and run.

Since I work with tourists and business travelers, I can tell you that most people that come here to do projects are not interested in supporting the local economy - they're working to much to enjoy it.

Whereas the government worker working for DOT does live here, does give back, does cotnribute to the boosting of local products and that is what we need more and more of. The DOT worker would enjoy our public beach parks, our local fruits and fish, and our school system.