April 9, 2009 4:41PM # Hawaiians Don’t Wait for Government — Rebuild Road By [Tad DeHaven](https://www.cato.org/people/tad-dehaven) --- SHARE The spirit of 1776 is [alive and well in Kauai](http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/09/hawaii.volunteers.repair/index.html): > Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii’s Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park — for free. > > > “We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part,” Slack said. “Just like everyone’s sitting around waiting for a stimulus check, we were waiting for this but decided we couldn’t wait anymore.” It’s amazing what a little private initiative and economic incentive can do. Contrast this story with that of a [bridge being built to connect](http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/31/bridge.microsoft/index.html) Microsoft campuses in Redmond, WA with federal “stimulus” money. ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).