Highest Standard Of Living In USA (Honolulu: middle-class, to buy, private school tuition)
OahuIncludes Honolulu
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I have a question. I keep reading that Honolulu ranks highest for standard of living of US cities, but everything I read here (or a lot of what I read here) is overwhelmingly negative. What gives?
Lots of wealthy people living in Honolulu. It's a fabulous place to live if you have tons of money to afford the cost of living with enough left over to party, eat out, go to events.
No place is fun if you are broke; especially not a place with a high cost of living.
I have a question. I keep reading that Honolulu ranks highest for standard of living of US cities, but everything I read here (or a lot of what I read here) is overwhelmingly negative. What gives?
HAWAII IS A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE.
But one of the reasons you can sometimes see a "negative" slant to responses here is because of the sort of questions/ problems that are presented. Many of the inquiries come from people who are underfunded (no job or low paying job, small savings, children who might need private school expenses, wanting to buy the cheapest land they can find and sometimes even sight-unseen, etc). Those sort of postings lead to "warning" responses.
What you don't see here are many postings from people who have a well paying job or profession, a large savings, are able to easily afford private school tuition, are able to afford the expense of mainland travel if needed for special-situation medical care, can afford to buy a new car instead of bringing the clunker or only able to afford to buy a clunker here, can afford to load up a container and move their household items, etc. Those well-financially-set folks don't usually need to be asking for anonymous internet forum help.
It is sort of like wondering why if Hawaii is such a healthy place to live, you see some many people in a doctor's office. The doctor gets the selected "sick" people. [While C-D often gets the selected "underfunded" people.]
Check out the other types of threads here that ask for things like "vacation" advice, you'll see many positive replies. Not all is doom and gloom in the Hawaii C-D forums.
[Disclaimer: I am not saying that everyone who posts here on a limited budget is doomed to failure, there are many people who get by fine because they are adaptable and know how to prioritize so that they can be successful. But the OP's question was why there seems to be so much negativity ... and much of that is due in part to the hit-and-run posters who visit here with underlying financial problems which would be better left on the more affordable mainland.]
Last edited by CyberCity; 05-09-2013 at 01:26 PM..
Interesting article. The third person profiled, Gary Fontaine, was a grad-school adjunct professor of mine a few years ago at a college in Santa Barbara – very nice guy. He used to talk about how great the diving was off Boracay compared to Hawaii.
To the other responses on this thread, I'd add that, aside from the cost of living, a huge factor in whether you consider Hawaii a great place to live or not is the culture. Some people love it, and some people hate it. When Mainlanders I know visit Hawaii for the first time, I can usually predict who will like the locals, and who won't.
Thanks for the responses. I had a sucispion it was all about the Benjis. So many people allow that to rule their life. Florida is similar. Hard to find good paying jobs here that allow one to live an upper middle-class life, so lots of people are unhappy and find all sorts of other things wrong here.
I have a question. I keep reading that Honolulu ranks highest for standard of living of US cities, but everything I read here (or a lot of what I read here) is overwhelmingly negative. What gives?
Sometimes people have unrealistic expectations. Honolulu for someone from a humble back east upbringing is very close to paradise. For someone who has been spoiled their whole life they will always find faults. The island of Oahu is truly stunning.
What soured living here for me is the "us" vs "them" attitude...I came here with no preconceptions, no expectations of "paradise" and no high hopes...it was just a new place to see if I liked enough to live here for a while (I've traveled a bit and like to see the world). I wanted a change from Northern California (too cold for me).
I didn't like being ostracized and immediately outcast as some "mainlander" before I opened my mouth - to me, it's insulting. One doesn't know if I'm 4th generation Hawaiian or only been here 4 days if you're just judging me based on...what? I don't even know. Looks? I got tired of the xenophobia, reeeeally quickly. Even now, after being here a year, I still have people asking me how long I'm staying, if I'm a flight attendant, or if I was here on vacation. It's that pervasive mindset of "you couldn't be a local, could you" that's stupid.
On top of that, it's expensive for no reason other than the weather. You pay a lot more for a lot less: hospitality, friendliness, quality, modernity, space, efficiency, punctuality...when you take a hard, long look at it, you could go to plenty of other tropical islands and spend a lot less for the same level of inconvenience or standard of living that you get on Oahu or Kaua'i (I've lived on these two islands)...the only difference is that they wouldn't technically be a part of the U.S.
To the other responses on this thread, I'd add that, aside from the cost of living, a huge factor in whether you consider Hawaii a great place to live or not is the culture. Some people love it, and some people hate it. When Mainlanders I know visit Hawaii for the first time, I can usually predict who will like the locals, and who won't.
That! "Glamorous" Hawaii can be an unexpected wake up call for some folks to the reality of cultural differences. Not used to being looked upon in an unfavorable light? Come to Hawaii for a dose of it, because Hawaii is an equal-opportunity-cultural-challenge [that is, everyone has a challenge here of some sort], that some people can handle well and others not.
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