Pig Farms

What about all the squeals of pain?

The Aug. 27 business article, “Saving Hawaii’s Pig Farms,” whitewashes and idealizes a truly repugnant situation. People profess to care about cats and dogs but tolerate horrendous cruelty done in their name to pigs. This is just moral schizophrenia.

But the article fails to mention the dumping of toxic pesticides — which inevitably ends up in the pigs, as well as damaging the brains of neighbors’ kids. Nor does it mention the burning of plastic and tires in residential communities to cook garbage, which is then fed to the pigs.

One who hears the pigs squealing in pain for hours from bloating so severe it herniates the intestines and tears through the belly may not think too highly of piggeries. Nor was there any mention of the insanely cruel slaughterhouses.

Nor was there any mention that these “businesses” survive on corporate welfare — tax dollars for private people to profit personally from. No mention of the PTSD and awful working conditions of the slaughterhouse workers. No mention of the sale of piglets to train hunting dogs.

I think the story was mislabeled as a business story when it should fall under “Crime” or “Corruption” instead.

— Frank DeGiacomo, Hawaii Kai

Price Capping

An appropriate role for government

Regarding the Aug. 23 Community Voice titled “Hurricane Lane Price Caps Will Worsen Shortages,” I disagree with the premise of the author from the libertarian Grassroot Institute of Hawaii that price caps will worsen shortages.

Capping prices and preventing price gouging is an appropriate role of government at a time of civil emergency in an island state where the harbors are closed and store shelves empty out. Left to its own devices, the free market will raise prices at such a time.

Inflating prices during a time of shortages (aka price gouging) automatically creates shortages for the many people who cannot afford to buy goods at inflated prices, and worsens Hawaii’s already outrageous economic disparities.

— Doris Segal Matsunaga, Aiea

Hurricane Lessons

We need a Plan B

Gov. David Ige said, “Hawaii is in a unique situation. The overwhelming majority of commodities come through the port” (“Lessons Learned From The Hurricane That Just Missed Hawaii,” Aug. 28). “If we lose the port, it would take more time to re-establish supply chains than it would otherwise.”

Identification of a Plan B when we lose the port(s) is critical. Military air and sea transports are the only viable Plan B for short term (30 days) loss of the ports.

Where were the military decision-makers when local government and business heads met? A defined commitment to a Plan B mission is needed.

— John Prest, Kaaawa

Short-Term Rentals

Caldwell’s plan actually won’t work

Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Airbnb bill is a bad idea for two reasons: It is anti-free market, and it will not increase home availability to locals, as intended (“How Caldwell’s Airbnb Bill Could Ease Honolulu’s Housing Crunch,” Aug. 20).

When the government mandates how citizens can utilize their own property, it violates the foundational principles of a free-market society. The homeowners have purchased homes to live in or as investment properties, perhaps both, changing from one to the other over time as families age. It makes sense that they want the most that they can get for their investment.

The mistaken assumption is to think that locals want to live in and pay the going rent in the North Shore, Waianae, Haleiwa — places with high numbers of Airbnb units. These neighborhoods are close to the beach — important to tourists, not downtown or UH — important to us. Often, there is only one lane each way on the main roads that become horribly traffic-snarled when there is an accident or water main break. For the same amount as rent for the whole house, or less, locals can try to get a mortgage to own a home in an area closer to where they need to be for work and school.

 — Wendi Lau, Mililani

Editor’s note: The opinions and information expressed in letters are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.