Title: Toward a Just and Sustainable Future: Social Capitalism as a Model for Hawaiʻi

Executive Summary: Hawaiʻi’s current economic model—dependent on tourism, military spending, and real estate speculation—has produced acute inequality, environmental degradation, and cultural dispossession. This policy paper explores the viability of adapting a social capitalist framework to Hawaiʻi’s unique cultural, historical, and ecological context. It proposes a strategic shift toward a Hawaiian social capitalism centered on universal public services, inclusive economic growth, labor empowerment, Indigenous self-determination, and environmental regeneration.

I. Introduction Hawaiʻi faces a structural crisis. While celebrated globally as a paradise, it is home to rising houselessness, cost-of-living burdens, food insecurity, and systemic displacement of Native Hawaiians. These outcomes are not incidental; they are produced by a model of extractive capitalism shaped by colonization, speculative land use, and external dependency.

Social capitalism—which seeks to balance market efficiency with strong social safeguards—offers an alternative rooted in equitable opportunity, regulated enterprise, and universal provision of essential services. This paper explores how a uniquely Hawaiian social capitalism might look and function.

II. Key Pillars of Hawaiian Social Capitalism

1. Universal Public Services Hawaiʻi can lead in decommodifying basic needs:

• Implement a single-payer healthcare system at the state level
• Provide tuition-free education through post-secondary level
• Establish community-controlled public housing authorities
• Expand access to local, culturally grounded food systems

2. Progressive Taxation and Public Finance A fair tax system must reverse decades of concessions to corporate and elite interests:

• Reinstate taxation on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
• Impose vacancy and luxury taxes on non-resident-owned properties
• Close offshore loopholes and tax corporate tourism profits at the source

3. Labor and Inclusive Economic Participation Empowering workers is essential:

• Strengthen protections for union organizing
• Promote worker cooperatives, credit unions, and community development corporations
• Guarantee green jobs through climate adaptation and restoration economies

4. Indigenous Sovereignty and Governance A Hawaiian social capitalism must center Indigenous rights and leadership:

• Restore land and water management authority to Native Hawaiian trusts and governing bodies
• Embed values like aloha ʻāina and malama ʻāina into statutory law
• Expand language, cultural, and educational initiatives led by Kanaka Maoli communities

5. Environmental Stewardship and Regeneration Policy must reflect climate and ecological urgency:

• Transition to public-private partnerships for renewable energy infrastructure
• Expand watershed and reef restoration projects through public investment
• Implement a Green Growth strategy for Hawaiʻi grounded in place-based knowledge

III. Challenges and Constraints Obstacles include:

• Federal legal and constitutional limitations (e.g. preemption and commerce clause issues)
• Influence of corporate lobbies and military contractors
• Political inertia and lack of public awareness

However, creative governance, local control, and community mobilization can overcome these challenges. Precedents exist globally and within Hawaiʻi’s own history (e.g. territorial-era public health systems and communal land practices).

IV. Implementation Strategy

• Conduct public education and coalition-building campaigns statewide
• Enact enabling legislation through the Hawaiʻi State Legislature
• Partner with counties, Hawaiian Home Lands, and Indigenous institutions for implementation
• Use pilot programs to demonstrate feasibility (e.g. universal basic income on Molokaʻi)

V. Conclusion Hawaiʻi can be a global model of a regenerative, just, and innovation-driven society rooted in Indigenous values and committed to the wellbeing of all. A transition to social capitalism is not only possible—it is necessary.

Citations:

1. Lane Kenworthy, Social Democratic America (Oxford University Press, 2014).
2. Kevin Dayton, “Hawaii Legislature Approves Tax on Real Estate Investment Trusts,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, May 4, 2022.
3. Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor, Nā Kuaʻāina: Living Hawaiian Culture (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2007).