Is there some sort of "double standard" regarding rent? Like if you are native you only pay X, but if you are a haole you are told the rent is 10X?
Landlords can play vacancy/rent games but end up losing tenants/money. The Internet (especially Craigslist and the military's housing website) has really flattened that out. You can easily figure market rent. And if the landlord has to play those games, you don't want to live there anyway.
You have to show a Hawaii driver's license to get the "kama`aina discount". But there's also a military discount, a Safeway club card, Costco memberships, kupuna discounts... the same things everyone else uses.
As one of the haole-est among haoles, I seldom encounter outright racial discrimination. Many complainers find that to be a convenient excuse for their otherwise unacceptable behavior, and it usually only surfaces when people get angry. Inarticulate rage also quickly spews out racial epithets like "#$%^ing haole", which I've never been called to my face but which frustration has led to even nastier racist characterizations for other races... especially if they can be translated to English. You've probably seen the same in the prison. The worst I've ever been around in nearly 19 years is "Eh, cuz, you wouldn't believe what that big dumb haole-- oops, sorry brah." Today it's more descriptive than pejorative, and oddly enough the subject in question deserved the description.
An Asian culture perhaps puts more emphasis on family and long-time close friends than on openhearted goodwill toward all. Nepotism is highly prized for its loyalty ("We train 'em later, eh") while a long list of Mainland-expert credentials (yet no local ties) may be viewed with suspicion. I've lived all over the world and discrimination/racism is far worse on the Mainland than it is in Hawaii, let alone other countries.
As for housing, many residents bought at the bottom and used sweat equity. Others use ohana housing or inherited, some made their money on the Mainland and cashed out when they could afford the Price of Paradise. But most did it the old-fashioned way-- working, exchanging school/training/experience for promotions, and saving their butts off. It can be done and I read the success stories all the time on HawaiiThreads.com.
I don't see how locals can afford those housing prices AND the "shipping prices" for all the food stuffs, furniture, appliances, and other things they ship in from overseas.
Well, actually it's cheaper to ship from Asia than from Los Angeles, even with the currency depreciation. I have friends bringing me requests all the time from Korea, Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines... I'm going to have to try to think of anything I've asked for from the Mainland. Isolation has its advantages-- used cars are a LOT cheaper around here because you can't drive it to the next state and it costs over $1000 to take it with you. The same is true to some degree for the other possessions.
When I order something from the Pacific Rim it comes in a few days or a couple weeks. I get heartily tired of hearing "Four to six weeks from the Mainland" or "We'll ship it as soon as we have a full container."
It gets real old encountering call centers saying "Oh, yew-all's from Hawaya, hawnh? Sawry, hunny, we only ship to the Yew-nighted Stayats. Say, my cuzin's sister's auntie's brother went to that thay-ure Whykeekee once, and hayud a greayat time, but no one stamped his passport! What's the whethur liyak thayure tuhday? Have a nice'un now, sugar!" And that's easy to understand compared to some fast-talking northeast accents. Foreign languages, alien cultures, & racial discrimination indeed.
But Mainland shipping gets a lot cheaper through
ShipToHawaii.com.
