"The Pork Barrel Kingdom"

The consequence of having a "pork" culture is that people consume far more than they produce (contribute) -- thinking they are "smarter" than everybody else for thinking of that first.

But its effects show and cannot be denied -- that, "No, I didn't eat all the extra plate lunches (pupu platters) the politicians left."

In Hawaii for too long, there has been this culture of denial and deception -- that reveals itself, though the media, schools, universities, and government studies may "prove" otherwise -- that nothing is related to anything else, and one can therefore solve the traffic congestion by building a rail through empty pineapple fields, and that one can mysteriously balloon to a tremendous weight and out of shape condition overnight even though one hardly eats and exercises faithfully.

So in that world of disinformation and misinformation, all things are plausible, and bad liars (lawyers) become king, in an upside-down world. One tries to point out these things, but few will listen -- and instead, they will be called fools for not jumping on the bandwagon and eating more than their fair share -- thinking that is the smart thing to do, and what makes them "winners."

But in the end, as the health care industry knows, justice is served, and these "health care professionals," milk these people for the last half of their lives -- as though they were cash cows, who exist for no other purpose but to max out their medical benefits. And that is the present medical care/insurance problem in the US as well as throughout the world -- in which a lot of people grew up in a world of scarcity that has now become a world of abundance, but they were never taught the discipline to exercise restraint and the freedom to choose wisely.

And so at any opportunity, they think they still have to eat more before everybody else can beat them to it -- with disastrous effects. It's time for a culture change -- and the local media to stop running these stories about Hawaii being the "fittest and healthiest place" on earth, just because they say so -- because everyone can see the reality in the faces and bodies of those around them.

That's why it's not good to mainline "pork" -- as the dominant cultural value and highest achievement.