In life we have all heard many cliches but the one that is heard the most is "money is the root of all evil." However, it is the truth in life and especially a motto and or phrase that humans live by. Additionally humans naturally have the tendency to become selfish when it comes to money. For this reason the wealthy will not share their funds nor give it away willingly unless they get something in return. However there are times when money can lead us to progress. Examples in Modern History of Hawaii will prove that money can lead to both selfishness and progress because of ethnic tension, the evolution of Hawai'i pidgin English, the school system, and the establishment of labor unions.
In the 1900's the plantation workers had, had enough of the harassment they endured from their owners and the tension was building up very quickly. Which was due to being whipped with whips and being treated as property instead of a human being. Also the wages were unequal and depended on race. For example the Puerto Ricans and Portuguese were paid $22.50 monthly, while the Japanese were paid $18.00 monthly. Yet the Japanese workers, who were the majority and got paid more than a few other races decided to go on a strike in 1909 to show their dissatisfaction. However their efforts costed them more damage because they were replaced by Filipino workers. Showing how in a way the japanese were selfish because even though they made more money than certain races they still wanted to get paid even more so. In addition their only reasoning for getting paid more than the others was because they worked the hardest even though it wasn't entirely true. Thus the japanese were consumed with greed and only wanted to further their earnings in spite of the fact that there was others who got paid much less and did the same amount of work with the same intensity as the japanese. .
The next example was Hawaii pidgin english, pidgin positively affected the plantation life socially, politically and economically because it allowed for interaction between different racial groups within the same plantation even though they didn't have a common language to speak.
