The Haves and the Have-Nots

The Haves and the Have-Nots was Originally Posted on July 14, 2005 by lavarock

An interesting news item has been appearing around the country recently. That item involves the National Association of Counties’ conference, which begins in this week. The conference appears to be an annual meeting where county officials gather to discuss the problems of running a county and discuss solutions.

The big contention appears to be that the newspapers and now the public are being told “but they are meeting in HAWAII!” as if that was a bad thing. Many of the news items approach the meeting as a vacation the conventioneers are taking and infer that they will not be working. I believe that is not correct!

I have attended many many conventions and conferences and usually you spend most of the day stuck in a hotel or convention center. You have food and beverages brought in, sometimes have a locally produced show during a lunch or dinner and one or two of the days you may have an “off property” event which could be a show, boat ride or tour of a related business. Attendees may extend their time at the location for an extra day or two, since they are already there. Often the trip to a remote convention or conference includes a bit of jet lag. Often this is the only opportunity a person has to “get away from the office” for a few days and an extra day is welcome.

I am not quite sure why there is so many objections to this particular trip. It can’t be the cost as many papers seem to report that including inflation, the trip is not overly expensive compared to last years trip which stayed on the mainland. It might be that the “have-nots” are upset because some one else will “have” something they can’t.

Often I hear (and have reported many times) that people think “Hawaii is Expensive”. It is not and again I back off from needed work to explain yet again, that Hawaii is NOT expensive unless you want it to be. It is certainly not the money hole people think it is.

Some of our islands are more upscale than others. Compared to the Big Island, Maui and Kauai might be considered expensive; but is Hawaii much more expensive than a city on the mainland?

Well, we have some extra taxes here, and there are upscale hotels here too, but just how do hotel prices compare? Well, here is an idea. A very nice hotel one block from the beach in Waikiki on Oahu cost about $150 a night. That includes breakfast, newspaper and local telephone calls. I checked the Beachcomber because I have stayed there and know the hotel. Alternative hotels might cost $85 a night. Oh you could spend $350 a night at some hotels, but why? The rate at a convention hotel in Las Vegas would be $105 a night. A Holiday Inn in Orlando (another convention town) was $108 a night. If the conference were held in Orlando Florida, would not the people back home be suggesting that since the attendee was going to be staying near Disney that they should take the family and make a trip out of it?

When you eat at a hotel, you might pay a premium, but Hawaii offers many reasonably priced restaurants and venues.

For local shopping, we have COSTCO, Lowes, Home Deport, Wal-Mart, K-Mart and so on. Many of these stores charge the same prices as they do on the mainland. For example, I see 5,000 BTU air conditioners for sale this week at $80. Not that many conference attendees will be buying air conditioners, but it gives you a comparison point.

So why do people think Hawaii is expensive/ I think one reason is that we advertise it as Paradise, and everyone knows that Paradise comes with a price tag.

Others watch these TV shows like the “Price is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune” and so on and hear about the 3 night prizes costing THOUSANDS of dollars. What most people don’t realize is that the “Suggested Retail Price” of these vacation prizes is jacked up to make them sound expensive, but that they NOT sold at those prices.

In the above discussions of county officials heading here from the mainland, some reported their airfare at $600 round trip. Their cost for 3 t o5 days here for a convention including meals hotel, transportation and so on was $2,000. Is that much different from a trip to Disneyworld or Las Vegas?

As for what the attendees would learn here, I don’t know, because I’m not an expert at running a county. However, Oahu is smaller but similar to a county I would expect. Each island here has various problems, many of them reflected back on the mainland. We also have positive and negative results we can share. Our state unemployment is the lowest in the US.

It will be interesting to see what happens AFTER the conference. Will the cost of the trip really be as high as people were suggesting? Will this happen next year if they choose New York or Los Angeles or wherever as their destination?

Time will tell.