Jack of Harts

One issue Hawaii had during the Second Great Depression was insufficient production of critical products. Hawaii had been dependent on imports of everything from food to military supplies for generations. It didn’t have enough land to grow food, and it didn’t have enough industry to support the economy. The economy collapsed. There is no other way to describe what happened when so many tourists stopped flying to Hawaii. And food shipments from the Mainland dried up as well. One thing they did have going for them was a veritable wealth of fish in the oceans, and their fleets set sail every day to provide the basic essentials their people needed to live. The boats kept their people from starving, but many Hawaiians became utterly sick of food that came from the ocean. Steak and hamburger have been luxury foods on the islands ever since. Seafood in Hawaii is in highest demand by the tourists now. Most natives would rather eat something that grew up on land, whether that land is natural or one of the many manmade islands scattered throughout Hawaii.

The Hawaiian Crown Fund is an amazing venture started during the Second Great Depression. Mounting losses in tourism alarmed the citizens, which gave Governor Mahana the freedom to nationalize the old Crown Lands and levy monthly rents on the new tenants to make up the loss in external revenue. This money went into the Crown Fund, a portion of which was paid out on a monthly basis to every confirmed citizen of Hawaii to help them keep the lights on and food on their tables. The Crown Fund has expanded over the centuries to pay for basic medical care and other social services, and countless businesses owned by Hawaiian citizens found their start with low interest Crown Loans. Careful management helped it fund the creation of new islands and taller buildings, and the Palmyra Elevator reached orbit thanks to the Crown Fund. New colonies in the Solar System and beyond were started by monies earned by the Crown Lands, and the hearts of many of those colonies are Crown Lands in their own rights, the rents of which cycle back into the Crown Fund for the future generations of Hawaii and her colonies. Two things make the Crown Fund truly special in Hawaii. First, is that any benefit or dividend handed out from the Crown Fund is utterly and totally exempt from any tax assessors. And second, the Crown Fund is personally administered by the Hawaiian Head of State, not the legislature.

The political campaign for the vacated governorship of Hawaii brought Hawaii into the Second Great Depression with destroyed political careers, jailed politicians, and gutted political parties. The last man standing on Election Day was actually a woman. Mahana La’anui had first gained prominence by winning the Miss Hawaii competition, led numerous Hawaiian cultural remembrance organizations afterwards, and was a real life princess. Her family was one of the few that still traced its lineage back to the last Queen of Hawaii. She was attractive, an excellent public speaker, a proud proponent of Hawaii’s cultural history, and the last real option the voters had short of trying to start an entire new election campaign. No one had the stomach for that and she won with a landslide vote and an easy smile that disarmed every single one of her surviving political opponents. They would learn to regret that in the decades that followed.