Multi-point plan
I think that these steps violate some parts of the US Constitution, and it wouldn't be possible to do these with Hawaii as a state, but they're not all that politically feasible anyway, so, whatever.
1 Land reforms
1.1 - Forbid land ownership by non-residents of the state - if someone wants to "own" a big house and not live here, they need to have some local person own it for them or something and they can come stay from time to time. A resident of the state would be defined as someone who lives in the state for 6 months of the year, to make it possible to be away part of the time, but make sure the land owner's interest stays on/with the island.
1.2 - Make it quite easy for people to have two houses on each lot, with the stipulation that the guest/rental/whatever house has to be smaller than the one they live in.
1.3 - Grant right of passage or whatever it's called to everyone across all parcels of land. No such thing as a "No Trespassing" sign. It certainly wouldn't be allowed to go camp in someone's lawn if they don't want you to, and you can be creative with landscaping to give yourself privacy, but in general, there's no such thing as "No Trespassing". I believe this exists in Ireland or something like that, and would greatly strengthen the sense of community.
2 Business reforms
2.1 - Add a +100% gasoline tax, and actually build a public transit system that doesn't suck really really bad. Make it friendly and desirable instead of actively discouraging tourists from using it (as they do currently).
2.2 - Add a steep tariff to imported finished goods. So it would be plenty easy to import cloth from Indonesia, and make shirts that are available locally for cheaper, but it would make them a lot more expensive than buying the whole clothes from China. This is kind of a reverse VAT, where something is heavily taxed if it is brought finished, but if someone adds value to it (like assembles a shirt) then it is taxed at a much lower rate.
The issues of corporate ownership of land becomes tricky with respect to 1.1, but I think that it could be done. Businesses like hotels and condominium complexes are are fine - I think they are necessary and good, but think that they should perhaps be tied to either private ownership of the land itself, or having some stipulation that the land-owning corporation be "local" and be controlled by residents of the state.
I think it is also necessary to "undo" some of the real estate transactions performed in the 1830's or whenever some missionary families came and bought huge swaths of the state. One family, in particular, owns something like 23% of the island, which is silly. There's a lot of resentment of the old missionary families by the Hawaiians, and rightfully so, in my opinion. They like to say that the missionaries came here to do good, and did very well. I think that those missionaries come in, bought the land from the Hawaiians with a bunch of money and a promise of supplies of goods from the mainland, and just stopped the land from being worked, and now the islands are totally import-dependent. That's bad.
I don't think that the Hawaiians who sold all their lands were cheated or any of the assertions that the locals like to make along those lines, but the current situation is not good, it's not sustainable, and needs to be fixed.
That's my thoughts on the matter for now; it's time to go hike up a mountain and see what it looks like from up there...
1 Land reforms
1.1 - Forbid land ownership by non-residents of the state - if someone wants to "own" a big house and not live here, they need to have some local person own it for them or something and they can come stay from time to time. A resident of the state would be defined as someone who lives in the state for 6 months of the year, to make it possible to be away part of the time, but make sure the land owner's interest stays on/with the island.
1.2 - Make it quite easy for people to have two houses on each lot, with the stipulation that the guest/rental/whatever house has to be smaller than the one they live in.
1.3 - Grant right of passage or whatever it's called to everyone across all parcels of land. No such thing as a "No Trespassing" sign. It certainly wouldn't be allowed to go camp in someone's lawn if they don't want you to, and you can be creative with landscaping to give yourself privacy, but in general, there's no such thing as "No Trespassing". I believe this exists in Ireland or something like that, and would greatly strengthen the sense of community.
2 Business reforms
2.1 - Add a +100% gasoline tax, and actually build a public transit system that doesn't suck really really bad. Make it friendly and desirable instead of actively discouraging tourists from using it (as they do currently).
2.2 - Add a steep tariff to imported finished goods. So it would be plenty easy to import cloth from Indonesia, and make shirts that are available locally for cheaper, but it would make them a lot more expensive than buying the whole clothes from China. This is kind of a reverse VAT, where something is heavily taxed if it is brought finished, but if someone adds value to it (like assembles a shirt) then it is taxed at a much lower rate.
The issues of corporate ownership of land becomes tricky with respect to 1.1, but I think that it could be done. Businesses like hotels and condominium complexes are are fine - I think they are necessary and good, but think that they should perhaps be tied to either private ownership of the land itself, or having some stipulation that the land-owning corporation be "local" and be controlled by residents of the state.
I think it is also necessary to "undo" some of the real estate transactions performed in the 1830's or whenever some missionary families came and bought huge swaths of the state. One family, in particular, owns something like 23% of the island, which is silly. There's a lot of resentment of the old missionary families by the Hawaiians, and rightfully so, in my opinion. They like to say that the missionaries came here to do good, and did very well. I think that those missionaries come in, bought the land from the Hawaiians with a bunch of money and a promise of supplies of goods from the mainland, and just stopped the land from being worked, and now the islands are totally import-dependent. That's bad.
I don't think that the Hawaiians who sold all their lands were cheated or any of the assertions that the locals like to make along those lines, but the current situation is not good, it's not sustainable, and needs to be fixed.
That's my thoughts on the matter for now; it's time to go hike up a mountain and see what it looks like from up there...