After almost 20 years in Hawaii living on three islands — Maui, Molokai and Oahu — we had finally had enough and in October 2020 left our home in Hawaii Kai for Albuquerque, New Mexico.
We did not have children living with us, and we were self-employed working from home. Our business is real estate investing, and we manage our personal real estate rental portfolio. We liked living in Hawaii, but stupid regulations that never made much sense pushed us over the edge.
For us, it was the excessive regulation and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Never had we seen such excessive violation of our rights under the guise of protecting the public. Turning neighbor against neighbor and providing the hotline to do it was the worst.
The government provoked fear among the populace, and the fact that so many Hawaii residents went along with it was alarming. Issuing tens of thousands of senseless violations for violating ignorant laws and possibly leaving good people with criminal records was beyond the pale.
Hawaii always overregulates and overtaxes everything, and the new laws were confusing and left us wondering who is in charge here. Does anyone in the government have a lick of sense? I don’t think so. As a one-party political state, there are simply no checks and balances in government. It’s “good ol’ boy” rule.
Hawaii never approached the number of cases of COVID-19 that required the draconian measures that were taken. How many people lost their entire investments of a lifetime because of the shutdowns? It is a sad state of affairs that the apathetic voters of Hawaii have not come to the realization that their politicians for the most part have no solutions other than to increase taxes and overregulate everything in the state.
We have found that states like Arizona, Texas and Florida offer an abundance of opportunity and freedom, unlike the oppressive government that is Hawaii. I wish everyone in Hawaii the best, but it is not likely we will ever return.
