Is Hawaii benefiting from these billionaires who live full or part-time in the islands?
57 thoughts on “Billionaires Bezos, Zuckerberg, Oprah and Ellison Pony Up Big In Hawaii”
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Home » Blog » Culture and Events » Billionaires Bezos, Zuckerberg, Oprah and Ellison Pony Up Big In Hawaii
Oprah visited Lanai. Spent time at a shelter for fire victims.
Question; why did she feel the need to bring a film crew ?
Yes, they are buying up land and donating to causes in Hawaii. Then the day will come when they throw all the locals off the island except for skilled workers.
I hope that instead of buying land American billionaires could donate enough money to rebuild lahaina. That would help residents more than anything. Oprah donated pillows & blankets, really?? Since she owned many acres, show them the money!
Why? And why such large amounts of land being sold to any individual? Will the natives and those living on these islands be able to access the areas? Visitors? Are they preserving the land and culture? Sharing and educating visitors? Hawaii is special and I’d hate to see it closed off and inaccessible except to the wealthy few……donations? The least they can do but it seems they are receiving so much more….
The poor are still very poor in Maui.
Not sure where the billionaires money goes.
Irane d
I live at Lake Tahoe, 39 years now. From what I’ve seen, billionaires ruin everything.
The wealthy have and continue to drive Native Hawaiians out because they can’t afford to live on what used to be their own land. Check out what a million dollars will buy you in HI. Not much.
To be fair, much of the problem in Hawaii hasn’t just been created by foreigners, but by the state of HI and a few wealthy families such as the Bishops who jointly own most of the acreage on all islands. I find Oprah donating a $100,000 grant offensive. Common, Oprah, you’re a billionaire! That would be like me donating a dollar to a cause and bragging about it.
I think it’s sad that any one person is able to buy large amounts of land, how many acres do you need, seriously? How much consideration is given to the native Hawaiians and the rise of number of Native Hawaiians going homeless or being forced to leave because they are unable to afford living costs. The contributions are great but, are they enough to make a difference especially when you’re a billionaire? As for thinking your helping by giving someone a job what exactly are you paying them?
Aloha,
My blood pressure just skyrocketed.
Mahalo
Seems like you left out all of the obvious things that all of these billionaires do for Hawaii by buying up so much property… like preserving it from development… like providing jobs–and supporting countless local contractors and businesses… like paying huge amounts of property taxes–for services they will never use… like public schools… and welfare / EBT / health insurance, etc. They’re only here a few weeks or months out of the year but add 100x more to the local economy than most