Within the first paragraph I already gained a new understanding of economies. For a long time as a young artist kid I often perused the path of printing T -Shirts. I did it for a while, however after a while I was discouraged that I really was not doing anything to benefit anyone by selling shirts. However I just understood that any part I play within the economy is benefiting the community in a way.

The idea of GDP made me think about a discussion I had with a Aunty last night. She was telling me about her Maile Farm on the big Island. For her the whole idea behind it was that now a days, people are using imported Maile because the local growers are not reliable. She also knew that we were destroying our own Maile resources by trying to keep up with the demand. This is how she was inspired to start to her Maile Farm. She explained to me that she was simply using the "Maile" as the vehicle to raise her people because of this same philosophy that the money would filter through the community by providing jobs and so on. What can I use for this "vehicle" that will stimulate the economy and do something else at the same time like how aunties farm reforested the environment. I think it is a very important realization for us to figure out how to provide this place with what it needs so that we are not importing everything. This leads us to the idea of subsistence.
What I got from this is that we definitely have the resources to sustain our selves, but the question is whether we are using these resources correctly; and we can all agree that we are not. Something I read in another book today made me think. It talked about how Hawaiians once ate food strictly from "this" soil and "this" sea. This speaks of how what our bodies were made up of were also "Hawaiian" (things of this place). In this modern time I feel that our bodies are made up of foreign foods not from this soil or this sea. This is all the whole idea of subsistence.
Aunty also talked about how if you think about it the Hawaiian community has a lot of money resources within Kamehameha Schools, OHA, QLCC, and so it, we just gotta figure out how to come together.