I’m told Hawaii attracts ever more visitors who spend ever less money. It has turned Hawaii’s blessed weather and lovely land from a high-profit luxury tourism industry into a collection of low-profit mom-and-pop, do-it-yourself rentals, serving tourists who feel we owe them a cheap vacation that they can spend hanging loose, overcrowding our beaches and parks (like Hanauma Bay).

But no one ever tells those of us who don’t share in the tourist industry profits, the cost of things like the value of Hawaii’s priceless land lost to landfill consumed by tourists’ waste, or their naturally excessive overuse of water and electricity (air conditioning), or thousands of rental cars clogging our highways, which helped politicians and friends-of-politicians ram rail down our throats.

Still, I’m glad visitors can obtain a medical marijuana dispensing card online in only 20 minutes. A nice thought as we taxpayers stand in line for hours to renew our driver’s licenses.

George L. Berish

Kaakako

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