WEBVTT - Hawaii: When a Billionaire Buys Your Hometown 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.960 Peter Franklin had been running a successful woodworking business on Lanai, Hawaii, 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.880 when Larry Ellison, one of the richest people on the planet, 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.959 but nearly the entire island for about three hundred million dollars. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.000 This was back in There are feelings of both angst 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:31.040 and excitement as Lenite residents prepared to welcome new billionaire 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.279 owner Larry Ellison. Larry Ellison loves to go shopping for 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:39.000 big things seton bought a Hawaiian island recently. In his 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.720 first interview since buying three months ago, Larry Ellison shows 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.040 he's as ambitious as he is rich. The news meant 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.360 that Peter had a new landlord, and at first things 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.000 went relatively well. For one, he had a new spending client. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.920 Ellison's people asked Peter to make some furniture and hired 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.400 his shop, Lanai Woodworkers, for one of his first projects 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.160 on the island, building a Nobu, you know, the Japanese 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.320 restaurant known for its celebrity sightings. Here's Peter remembering one 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.800 of the earlier projects he did for Ellison. Mr. Ellison 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.279 was starting to spend more time here and the story 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.120 was he didn't like rectangular square tables. He didn't like corners, 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:26.240 and so they wanted this massive round table and they're 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.760 like so many other jobs. We did it, We got 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.039 it done. It was a nice table. Massively. The Nobu 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.319 job was finished six months after Ellison bought the island. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.800 Chris Andrews, one of Peter's employees, remembers meeting Ellison for 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.600 the first time during its opening in late December of 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:47.560 that year. We're down there for the soft opening. At 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:48.920 one point I had to go to the rest of us, 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.280 so I pushed my chair back and bumped into someone. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.720 All I apologize, is so sorry, And I turned around. 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.280 Here's a scrubby looking guy. Couldn't he believe use their 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:02.320 flannel shirt head shape? He said, Oh, I'm Ellison And 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.600 I said, oh, Mr Ellison, Well we did these walls 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.200 were lynn I would workers. We did your hostess stand. 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.120 He shakes my hand and says, we're going to do 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.680 great work together. January one. We had a distinction of 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.000 being the first company that he killed, the first company 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.040 he kills, but not the last, and it would be 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:24.840 a slow death. Ellison's management company, Palama Nai, which means 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:29.400 to cherish Lenai, first came to Peter with an ultimatum, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.000 either he could sell his business to Polama or vacate 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:37.080 the building. When Mr Ellison bought the island, they came 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.400 to me and said, listen, we owned this building, we 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.000 want to use the building. You can work for us, 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.840 or you can go do something else. For Peter, the 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.919 choice was simple, keep doing what he'd been doing for years. 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.240 He sold the business and worked for Ellison for another 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:58.840 six years. Then not of nowhere again, Ellison's company decided 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:03.639 to shut down Lanai Woodworkers entirely. Masamoto called me into 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.640 his office and, as a surprise to me, called me 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.720 into his office and uh, well, me was closing a woodshop. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.200 Kurt Matsumoto is the president of Ellison's management company. After that, 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.680 I asked her if we could buy any the equipment, 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.520 and he told me no. He recommended I leave the island, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.600 and I was kind of shattered by that, kind of 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:27.440 made up my mind. Well, I guess I'm not leaving. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.120 The problem for Peter is he might not have a 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.080 choice in the matter. Ellison also owns the apartment where 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.800 he lives, and there's a stipulation in the billionaires residential 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.680 leases that if you work for one of the landlords 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.520 companies and are fired. That's grounds to terminate your lease. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.600 In other words, Ellison could kick him out of his 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:52.400 apartment at any time. So you're holding your bronake. It 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.080 easily say, well, listen you, you don't work for us anymore. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.960 You have the vacate. And so it goes on an 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.280 island owned by a man who's so rich that if 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.839 he wanted to, he could afford to buy Lennai three 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.960 hundred times over. Jobless claims coming in, I mean really 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.720 jumping from the week before, pretty brutal. Three point to 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.599 a million records six point six million Americans filed for 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:21.600 unemployment lost week. Indian booking reminable, the worst impacted by 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.120 the pandemic. Well, now to the billionaire boom. According to 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:30.400 Bloomberg's supriocht charters are up over three hundred and a 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.760 billionaire was created every twenty six hours during this condetic 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.000 Larry Ellison loves to go shopping for big things. You 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.720 bought a Hawaiian island recently. No one not waiting in 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.760 line for a COVID test with the public roads. It 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:53.920 is time for a wealth tax and America welcome back 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:58.520 to the paycheck I'm Rebecca Greenfield. The growth and wealth 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.920 inequality around the world in recent decades has been driven 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:07.560 by explosive wealth creation at the very top. Before the pandemic, 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.760 billionaire wealth was booming. The top twenty richest people in 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.920 the world held as much wealth as half of humanity, 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:22.280 that's almost four billion people. Then during the pandemic that 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:26.200 gap got much wider. Here's a bile Aghmed, a strategist 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.480 from ox MAM International. This pandemic, we're witnessing the biggest 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:35.400 increase in billionaire wealth since records began. In fact, billionaire 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.320 wealth has increased more during the pandemic than it has 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.960 in the fourteen years combined, and a billionaire was created 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.839 every twenty six hours a year into the pandemic. It 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.359 only took ten billionaires to get all the wealth held 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:54.480 by half of humanity. Wealth isn't inherently bad, and a 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:59.040 lot of people argue that billionaires have benefited society by innovating, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.720 creating jaw new companies, and they were in part incentivized 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.680 to do that by the prospect of getting very wealthy. 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:09.640 Many of them also use their money to give back 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.839 in ways that better the world, by, for example, funding 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.040 research that creates things like vaccines. But money is power, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.960 and increasingly one group of people is accumulating so much 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.760 wealth that in some ways, it can bend the world 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:30.239 to its whims at the expense of others. One such 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.800 billionaire is Larry Ellison. According to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, which 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:39.440 tracks billionaire wealth, he's worth around ninety billion dollars depending 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.440 on the day. That's nearly double what he had before 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.040 the pandemic. Ellison made his money as the co founder 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.400 of Oracle, a software company. He's part of a new 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.680 generation of scions, wealthier and more powerful due to a 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.640 soaring stock market that has primarily benefited American technology giants. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.080 They have an unfathomable amount of wealth to most people, 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:08.520 even probably themselves. Ellison may be best known for how 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.360 he spends his money, mansions, yachts, a tennis tournament, and 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.640 buying of the island of Lenai, the two Four Seasons 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.440 resorts there, around a third of its housing stock, and 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:25.360 practically all the commercial properties. Plenty of wealthy people own 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.640 private islands, but Lanai stands out. It's home to around 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:35.160 three thousand people, many whose families have lived there for generations. Overnight, 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.160 when he first bought it back in Most of those 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.520 people got a new boss, or a new landlord, or both. 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:47.280 Now they have a new neighbor. Like many office workers 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.880 stuck in their homes during lockdowns, Ellison relocated to one 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.720 of his many properties on Lanai. With the billionaire's attention 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:00.000 focused on the island now more than ever, residents are anxious. 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.000 None of them wants to become the next Lanaii woodworkers. 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.000 Sophia Alexander, a reporter on Bloomberg's Wealth Team, went to 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:17.240 Hawaii to see how things are playing out. There's a 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:22.560 reason people conjure images of Hawaii's sandy beaches, sunny blue skies, 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:28.000 and rolling green mountains when they think of paradise. Lanai 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.560 is no different. Approaching the island on the ferry from 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:36.240 Maui's Lahinah Harbor, It's hills look buttery soft. The Pacific 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.160 water that surrounds it is a deep blue, so clear. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.720 In some parts you can see the ocean floor and 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.679 a ring of clouds hovering around the islands. Mountain Peak 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.520 is called Mount a Lay because it looks like the 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.400 island is wearing a lay the Polynesian flower garland. It's 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.959 idyllic so it's easy to see why someone would want 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.560 to buy a Hawaiian island if they could. We know 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.760 that you've made tons of headlines recently ying in island 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.040 in Hawaii, Lenna, buying tons of homes. How many homes 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:08.760 do you own right now? Um, well, let's see homes 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:10.880 that I live in? Or why do you buy the 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:12.439 home if you don't live in? Well, for example, I 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.800 bought a home in Newport, Rhode Island, which I'm converting 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.480 into a nineteenth century European art museum. Larry Ellison didn't 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:20.840 respond to my emails asking to talk to him for 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.160 this story, and his management company didn't make any of 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.120 its executives available to me. We did find this one 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.240 interview he did on CNBC back in two thousand twelve. 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.400 Back then, he said he wanted to make Lenai a 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:38.839 sustainable paradise and help local start small businesses. He also 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.400 goes on and on about his plans for his own 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.360 art museums and his desire as a kid to be 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.720 a pilot, which is why he now has his own 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.920 planes to fly. But Lenny isn't just a mansion or 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.440 a jet. It's a community and one small decision from 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.520 Ellison can change everything. It's like a real life version 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.840 of SIMS, the World Building video game. Now a decade 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.640 has passed and Ellison and his company have changed a lot. 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.720 On the Nai Lanai woodworkers closed, so did the family 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.560 owned pokey shop and the car rental business and more 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.319 recently the cafe down the street. Most day. They were 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.600 given no explanation for their demise in and of itself. 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.640 When they buy this business or take over this business 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.640 doesn't seem much but in totality that that is a 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.800 concern from an economic standpoint, and just from the I 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.760 think from the perception residents have of what they're doing 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.319 on much control they have. Was it a metaphorm looking 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:43.800 at is throwing a crab, you know, part of cold 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.120 water and turning on the stole and you know, realize 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.439 that they're being boiled to death. That's Bochema, a retired 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.840 social worker who grew up on the island and is 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.200 one of the most vocal members of the community. We're 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.040 in Dole Park, the quasi town square of Nay City, 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.640 which got its name from James Dole, who bought the 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.840 island in one years ago. Dole decided to turn the 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:13.400 island into the world's largest pineapple plantation. So yeah, I 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.080 mean the Pineapple dictated how life went, you know here 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:21.880 in our community. And the old Pineapple, I mean they 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.880 basically took care of everything. They ran the barge to 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.320 and from Oahu. You kind of ran the clinic, they 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.520 ran the hospital. I mean, you know, they ran everything. 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:36.520 So they had a lot of control over what happened 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.880 in town. Butch grew up on the island during plantation days, 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:45.320 when everything was regulated by the company. Whistles marched the 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.800 start of our work day and whistles marked the a 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.400 p m. Curfew. The control over seemingly every aspect of 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.480 life and the dependence on the company for family's well 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:59.199 being created what locals still referred to as a plantation mentality. 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.040 What's this in the plantation? Is this idea that if 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.720 you work for the plantation, you don't speak out against them, 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.360 and that holds true no matter what to this day. 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:13.680 That's Solomon pele Halla Halla, a seventh generation Lenian who 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.560 goes by Saul. He also grew up during the plantation days. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.920 My parents then, we're both the workers of the pineapple plantation. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.600 My mother was a pineapple picker and my father became 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:31.080 a heavy equipment operator and a truck driver irrigating the 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.479 pineapple fields. First all, there was one instance in particular 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.760 that crystallized the wealth gap between the Nays residents and 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.720 Lenie owners, a divide that's only grown bigger With Ellison. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.520 I took a part time job. In the evening, I 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.520 did bartending as our part time, you know, And on 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.960 one day a group of people came in to have lunch, 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.520 and they are unusual group of people because the women 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.880 had Mike strolls on and I was serving their drinks. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.600 So they were ordering martiniz for lunch. And then when 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.719 they were getting ready to leave after their lunch, they 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.680 were walking out with their martini glasses and as a bartender, 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.320 I'd just said I better go and retrieve the glasses. 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.120 So I started to walk out of the hotel and 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.360 then the manager saw me, and then she stopped me 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.280 and she says, where are you going? And said, I'm 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.520 going to go and get the martini glasses from those 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:31.559 people that are leaving, And then she's stopped and she says, no, 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:35.400 let them go. And I said, why they're taking our 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:40.400 glasses and she says, these are the board of directors 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:48.319 for the Doll company. Yeah, that helped me to realize 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:54.000 that this plantation was supporting the people that we're having 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.880 martini lunches. And so I asked her, I said, so 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.280 they're leaving right now, Are they going to go in 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.680 into the pineapple fields to thank my mother and my 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:10.640 father for what they do to give them their flaunting wealth? 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.720 And she says, I don't think so, And then I 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:34.600 was crushed at that moment. Doll closed its plantation after 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.000 its parent company was bought by a billionaire named David Murdoch. 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.160 Murdoch is what locals now call a poor billionaire. He 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.840 was only worth a couple of billion dollars compared to 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:49.440 Ellison's roughly nine billion dollar fortune. People told me they 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:53.040 remember Murdoch routinely complaining about how much money he was 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.640 losing from the island. Ultimately, when he could no longer 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.480 afford to keep it running, he sold it to Ellison. 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.000 But Murdoch's impact on the island was enormous. He's the 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.200 one who built the two hotels and oversaw the transition 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:11.560 from pineapples to tourism. The change wasn't easy, and he 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.240 tangled with many of Lenais residents during his reign, often 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.520 getting into screaming matches with locals. But unlike Ellison, people 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.240 here told me the island's previous owner was at least 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.720 willing to talk to them face to face. For me, 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:30.760 that is a relationship, and that is one that allows 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:35.120 us to interact whether we agree or disagree. I've had 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.760 that relationship with with Murdoch because when he was wrong, 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.680 when he had no idea about it, I wouldn't hesitate 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.000 to him, and he would always tell me, you know, 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.040 you're a thorn in my side, you know, And I 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:51.680 took that as a compliment. Now with Ellison, it's a 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.440 completely different story. Solve remembers approaching the president of Ellison's 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.960 company to ask for a meeting with the new owner. 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.680 I say, Kurt, I would like to request a meeting 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:09.320 with Ellison in person. Kurt's response to me, and I'll 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.880 never forget this, He says, I don't mean to be disrespectful, 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:18.640 but that is not Ellison's style. Those are the exact 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.440 words they've been ingrained in me from that very moment. 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.960 And my response to Kurt was, first of all, that 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:32.320 is disrespectful, But beyond that, I still have an expectation 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.240 that we need to sit down and meet, you know, 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.760 and so I make my requests. So I've been waiting 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.360 now for ten years to have a conversation, just to 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:50.080 get to meet this person who somehow this mystic and 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.960 this mover and shaker in a community of which we 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.720 don't get to see you or no, and my requests 0:16:55.720 --> 0:17:00.160 have never been acknowledged or responded to. I also to 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.880 speak with Kurt Matsumoto, the president of Ellison's management company, 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.760 but he didn't respond to my emails. A spokesperson for 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.160 Poulama did suggest I talked to Diane Presa, who acts 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.960 as a liaison between the company and the community. She 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.840 didn't seem to want to talk much about Ellison's plans, 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.119 but she was the only person from Ellison's company who 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.760 agreed to be interviewed. So I had to ask, do 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:27.720 you feel like you have a broad sense of what 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.919 the plans Polama has for the community? Are? You know? 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.720 Things change at Puloma all the time. So I hate 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.280 to say something and then it doesn't happen, you know, 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:44.119 I guess like long term plans, you know, um I 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:50.000 would say no, while the uncertainty is scary for people 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.600 like Saul and Butch, who have lived on l Nay 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.960 for decades. There's more at stake for the younger generation 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.160 that worries about its future here on the island. Take 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.360 Michelle Fuji, a thirty eight year old high school math 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.800 teacher who grew up here and is raising her two 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:09.080 kids here. She loves lenai An enthusiastically offered to drive 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:11.800 me around to show me her favorite parts of the island. 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.359 Like pretty much everyone else here, her speedometer rarely topped, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:19.440 and it seems like she waved at every passing car 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.680 and person. Let's see if Auntie wants to ride because 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:28.800 she's walking to the rain. Sorry, that's Auntie. You like 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.679 when ride it is raining? You sure? Okay, you go 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:38.440 girl with your exercise. Everyone seems to know everyone here. 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.639 People refer to their elders as aunties and uncles. I 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:46.119 routinely saw people hugging. A stranger even invited me to 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.119 his kid's birthday party on the beach. Ellison is not 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.240 part of any of that, and it doesn't go unnoticed. 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.080 I think a big difference between Murdoch and Allison is 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.359 is just the connection to the community. Like I and 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.399 and I maybe it's like, you know how there's like 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.879 the five love languages and what is your best like 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:10.199 love language UM, And so maybe Murdoch was like words 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.639 of affirmation or service, you know, where he would actually 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:17.199 come out UM or quality time and spend time with 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.359 the community members, like people knew him by like first name, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.200 and you know, whenever he would come home, like sure 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.600 there's still that plantation boss mentality and everybody bowed down 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.800 and you know, praise you. But at the same time, 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.920 it's like people knew who he was. When you've seen 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.040 his face, you would recognize him and he would greet you. 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.280 Ellison is a little bit different. I've never met him. 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.680 Without any insight from Ellison, that leaves Michelle to fill 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.640 in the blanks about how his company's plans will affect 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:52.040 her life. I don't think that I'm fully Like if 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.040 I had to put my money on whether or not 0:19:54.600 --> 0:20:00.119 Poulama is solely in it for the best interest of 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.040 our community, I would not put my whole fortune on it, 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.360 you know what I mean. Since the pandemic started, more 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.840 rich people seem to be moving to the island. Michelle 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.200 is worried about the community becoming more divided economically. One 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.000 of my biggest fears is that the people of this 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:22.320 community will sort of be the ones that would be 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.600 caring for the elite rich that can't afford to actually 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.760 live here one day, and that's our sole purpose. Like 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:34.000 as an educator, you would think that we would want 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.400 our students to graduate and aspire to be more than 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:47.520 just somebody's servant. Michelle and her fiance have three kids 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.560 between the two of them and are excited about getting married, 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.560 but she says it's getting impossible to find housing, especially 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.199 after Ellison moved to the island and the pace of 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:02.320 his construction projects have picked up. All those projects need 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:06.119 people to build them, which means more construction workers living 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.560 on the island taking up the already limited housing options. 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:16.879 There's no houses. Really, isn't any homes that we could 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.399 affordably rent, you know, Like I think now, if we 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:22.800 were to try and find the house that was being 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.199 rented by some local family, we would be paying like 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:29.360 two dollars a month, because that's what construction workers would pay, 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.280 or that's what you know, the market would allow for. 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.439 To alleviate the housing crunch, Ellison is building more homes 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.760 on the island. The plan initially had units for sale, 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.359 but something changed and now they're all only for rent. 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:46.800 At first, Michelle was against the project because of the 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.280 change and the fact that the units will all be 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.159 fully furnished, making it feel like they're for outsiders moving 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.760 to the island temporarily. But with her wedding coming up, 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.919 she's desperate for options. That where my sway changed, you know, 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:04.560 Like then it's like, okay, well, if we're thinking about 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.399 the future as a married couple and we're not able 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:11.760 to live together unless we you know, I don't want 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:13.840 to say sell out because it's not really selling out 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.560 because we're not really selling anything, but it definitely changed 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.199 my perspective of things versus it just being like, you know, 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.120 we gotta think about ways that we're going to merge 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:28.640 our family, and that right now would be a solution. 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.880 Younger families like Michelle's have been moving off the island recently. 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:38.080 Michelle said she worries that if she did leave and 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.040 gave up her housing and her job, then there'd be 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:44.080 no way for her or her kids to return because 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:48.760 everything is becoming so expensive and there are so few 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:53.760 employment opportunities outside of working for the billionaire around the world. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.600 As the rich get richer and decided to move into 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.800 your neighborhood, changing it to fit their tastes. People often 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.280 throw around the word gentrification, but on the night it 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.199 goes beyond that, because it ultimately comes down to the 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:13.080 tastes of one person who increasingly dictates who and what 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:17.080 is allowed on his island. And in this version of gentrification, 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.840 you're not pushed further from the city center. You're pushed 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:24.120 into the ocean, and who knows if you can come back. 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:37.480 When I first started reporting on this season of The Paycheck, 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:41.560 an economist named Gabriel Zuckman told me something that's stuck 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:45.440 with me. He said, if you think about it, extreme 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:51.640 wealth inequality is inefficient. To someone like Larry Ellison, an 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:56.320 extra billion dollars doesn't change his life that much, but 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:59.119 that amount of money for the thousands of people on 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:03.439 the island, it would drastically change their lives. When you 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:07.000 own a hundred billion dollars, it's just useless. It's not 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:12.840 changing their lifestyle. It has no meaning. And whereas an 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:15.760 extrat billion, you know that that could be I don't know, 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:21.920 paid in taxes spent on education and healthcare, on infrastructure 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:27.160 that that is valuable. Next week on the Paycheck. We 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:30.320 had to a place where the government's decisions about how 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:35.520 to manage the pandemic had unintended consequences for women. I mean, 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:39.800 as public had professionals. We must do better. We have 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.680 to educate people. We had to educate communities, We had 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:46.359 to educate po data. It will be a mainting if 0:24:46.440 --> 0:24:50.520 we can help them to work together with the physicians, 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:53.800 for them to learn more and to be working together. 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:57.440 Thanks for listening to The Paycheck. If you like our show, 0:24:57.600 --> 0:25:00.320 please head on over to Apple Podcasts or ever you 0:25:00.359 --> 0:25:04.120 listen to podcasts and rate a review and subscribe. This 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:08.119 episode was hosted by me Rebecca Greenfield and reported by 0:25:08.160 --> 0:25:11.920 Sophie Alexander. It was edited by Shelley Banjo with help 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:16.919 from Francesca Levi, Janet Paskin Rocksheeta Soluja, and me. We 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:21.720 also had editing help from Daniel Balby, Kristin B. Brown, Gildaa, Carly, 0:25:22.160 --> 0:25:27.399 Nicole Flato, Melissa McDonald, and Kai Schultz. This episode was 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:31.560 produced by Gildaa, Carly and sound engineered by Matt kim Our. 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:35.960 Original music is by Leo Sidron. Special thanks to Magnus Hendrickson, 0:25:36.280 --> 0:25:41.560 Mckinnonda Keeper, Margaret Sutherland, Stacy Wong, and Aisha Diello. Francesca 0:25:41.680 --> 0:25:44.640 Levy is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. See you next week.