One thing a person could do to alleviate the living cost in Hawaii is to buy local products. This would boost the local economy and create more jobs, which mean more people spending money in Hawaii, which boosts the local economy even more.
People could also support charity organizations such as Aloha United Way. This would provide care for the homeless and could help them get back onto their feet. This would also help homeless people stay healthy, so it would make a little difference on the cost of healthcare.
Also people could buy healthcare. This would make hospitals stop having to cover the cost of treatment and then the cost of healthcare would go down. Also people could write to their representative and senators, state and federal.
If this situation continues on like this, unchecked, then there could be many problems for Hawaii. Homelessness would steadily grow(3,000 homeless in 1999 and now 6,000 in 2007) until it started to affect our tourist industry with the amount of trash and disturbances homelessness creates. This would create many other problems like unemployment, environmental problems, and higher taxes.
Also more people would be without healthcare, food, and education. This would result in more deaths, more drugs, and more homelessness. All this would affect the image of Hawaii and come back to the tourist industry, our number one money maker here in the island.
If you want to contact your local state legislator here is the link to the state legislature website. There is everything yo need to know about bills and senators. http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/
http://starbulletin.com/2007/01/12/news/story02.html
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/employ/livingwage2007.htm
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/docs/getstatus2.asp?billno=HB33
http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu/publications/brochures/EconomicWellBeing2007.pdf
3 comments:
Minimum wage in Hawaii did increase quite a bit recently. I remember that not long ago, it was around $5.75 and not it is up to around $7.50, I think you said. But you are right when you say that this still isn't enough because of the high cost of living here in Hawaii. I think that the people who are targeted the most are parents of children who have to support families. College and high school students aren't affected as much because they only have themselves to support. But men and women of the lower-class who work as janitors or fast-food restaurant workers tend to have it the hardest. Another issue is the surge of sanitation workers from the Philippines. because the Philippines is a poor country, coming to America is heaven. So the wages these workers earn are most of the time less than minimum wage; the workers dont complain because they are making way more than they did in Philippines, and employers save money. However, although this system works, this is unfair to workers who are getting manipulated and cheated. But would buyers want to pay more for products and services?
Oh, the above comment was made by me:
Alexa Untermann
(sorry mr cheever)
I already knew that buying local is really good in terms of being environmentally friendly, but I didn't realize that it could help raise minimum wage. Even if it is raised though, I don't know how much it would help because all of the other prices would go up too. This is especially hard in Hawai'i because everything is so expensive here, and I can't imagine a time when minimum wage isn't a problem.
-Alana
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