When we were going through one of our periodic building booms downtown the saying was that the state bird was the crane.  Not very original, but one of the other things about Hawai’i is that we’re typically a few years behind all mainland trends.

Oh hey. I think we should get the crane for our state bird. We’ve had the Big Dig going on since the beginning of the world, I think. We’ll probably still have it on the day the world ends, too.

In the main, being a few years behind mainland trends may not such a bad thing. Which ones do you really want?

Ha! Well, let’s see...how about mainland-level wages?  There’s what’s called a “paradise premium” out here, which is why I had full responsibility for computer systems for a $15M (revenue) enterprise for the princely sum of $22K per year after 9 years of working there. :raincloud:

Oh okay. Trends as opposed to trendy things (fads). Did the costs of living and real estate reach for the sky while salaries lagged?

Cost of living goes ever up; real estate bounces, as it’s wont to do.

For example: regular unleaded remains at its previous high of $2.26/gallon, despite the price falling on the mainland after the spike earlier this year.

Gas prices are starting to climb here again. So will prices there eventually fall as they have here and then spike again? Or will they just go up from where they are now?

But why are your gas prices still high if the cost of gas has fallen? I understand you’re situated waaaay out there in the middle of the bright blue sea, but your gas stations still have to purchase new shipments of gasoline. How long does it take for shipments to arrive?

Why still high?  A question we’re all asking.  The legislature passed a bill that would peg wholesale prices to those of California, but it doesn’t go into effect till 2006 and our newish Republican governor has been fighting it tooth and nail.

We have two refineries in the state, so we get raw crude here, and it doesn’t (I don’t think) take all that long to get here (a week via barge, maybe?).  We have forever been frustrated by this, because there’s no logical explanation ever given.  One of the reasons for the price-cap law was that it was determined that Chevron and Texaco (as it was then) made something like 30% of their company-wide net profit from Hawai’i operations.  You can make accounting numbers do nearly anything, of course, but still...that’s what set the legislature off.