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Roth, McClain, and Laney ask in July 1993 what Hawaii can do to strengthen an economy that has coasted on tourism and military spending for decades. McClain argues diversification should follow core competence: build a convention center, market the University of Hawaii and East-West Center as education exporters, and develop sports medicine and health services for Pacific Rim visitors. He dismisses concerns about foreign ownership as typical of any regional economy. Laney cautions that diversification alone is no guarantee, citing California's economic crisis despite being arguably the most diversified state in the union; he attributes Hawaii's complacency to having had only two recessions since statehood, against the national total of six. Both oppose casino gambling — McClain says it is culturally incongruent, Laney notes that state lotteries take about 50 percent of every dollar played, making them more regressive than sin taxes. On the military, Laney flags Hawaii's unusual dependence: the state receives a higher share of defense dollars relative to its economy than any other state, and the post-Cold War drawdown poses a slow but real threat. The session's recurring theme is that luck substituted for strategic thinking for three decades, and the early-1990s slowdown demands that habit change.
Transcript
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