Bootstrapping Hawaii

As much as I hate to sound like a Republican, I have to make a case that the
pioneers of new endeavors these days are largely corporations. I mean if a
new volcanic island appears off Java, the pioneers will be nearby fishermen
looking for a port to put in when the weather is bad. But for any
pioneering that requires megabucks, which Hawaii in this scenario (or Mars
in any) is, the folks with something financial to gain will be the ones to
put up the money.

Case in point: offshore oil. If there had been nothing but a science-nerd
lobby trying to get a government agency to create offshore towns, we'd still
be in the bird-on-the-bouy stage. But because Daddy Petrobucks can make
back his investment, we have quietly seen the migration of thousands,
perhaps tens of, to man-made cities out of sight of land. No government
development billions were required. In fact governments mostly just have to
adjudicate the disputes and rescue the occasional storm-trapped oil platform
workers.

So if you want Mars, oops, I mean your acid-plagued Hawaii, to become the
paradise it could be, don't bother to sell it to the masses, just find the
resources that corporations can make a profit on. If there aren't any, and
rich individuals can't afford to lead the way for a lark, you can write it
off, until some corporation needs it for a coaling station on the way to
Proxima Centauri, where the streets are paved with gold.

Now if the Republicans keep up their "progress," they'll create a new class
of American mega-billionaires at the expense of the rest of us, and who
knows what will motivate them.....

Brad W

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