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Murashige, Laura
From: Charles Flaherty [oneheart@aloha.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:23 AM
To: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us
Cc: Yoshimoto, J; Naeole, Emily; Ford, Brenda; Pilago, K. Angel; Hoffmann, Pete; Higa, Stacy; Yagong,
Dominic; Jacobson, Bob; Ikeda, Donald
Subject: Support Communication 32 (Resolution 21-07)
Aloha mai members of the Planning Committee,
I support Resolution 21-07 providing limits to prevent the development of "superstores" in this County.
The average American citizen believes that the cheap prices available at "big box stores' and "superstores"
provide them with more money and a better life. This belief is an increasingly tragic one.
The truth is that these enterprises exist only because of "free trade agreements" that are anything but free.
American products made with middle-class American labor costs have been forced to compete with foreign
products made with cheap foreign labor. The result has been the destruction of the American manufacturing
base, the loss of millions of American middleclass jobs, and the transfer of trillions of dollars to foreign countries,
whose only love of America is of its wealth, a rapidly declining wealth thanks to years of record budget and trade
deficits.
Councilman Higa's concern that "superstores" will destroy local mom-and-pop businesses is correct. Thanks to
free trade agreements, Wal-Mart dictates how much it pays suppliers around the world for their products. We all
know that this amount is far less than the amount that local businesses, truly American businesses, pay.
Will local consumers save a few dollars each time they shop if "superstores" are allowed? Today, yes. But
Americans are slowly coming to the realization that they have fewer and fewer American dollars to buy those
cheap foreign products, products made with what was once American capital.
This is not a free market, but rather one heavily favoring a company this is no longer loyal to this country, much
less this county.
Please help protect our community's health and the American Dream. Don't make the members of our local
independent business community into dependent, low-wage workers.
Vote "yea" on Resolution 21-07.
Mahalo, i
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Charles Flaherty ~ ~ -
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Ref. Date .IAN 1 8 7(lfll
1 /18/2007