I'm just not sure how this works

Larry Ellison of Oracle, the third richest man in America, just bought one of the small islands in Hawaii.
Lanai is 141 square miles and sets to the west of Maui. There are 3,000 residents.

Just a sidebar thought.....what Super Pac does Mr. Ellison support?

The island sold for 600 million dollars and was purchased from a company called Castle & Cooke.  Dole apparently had an interest because of their pineapple development, but didn't actually own the property.

Here's my thinking.   Can I actually buy San Francisco or Chicago?  Of course I realize that in my present financial situations I have trouble figuring out what to buy at the 99 cent store but that's not really the point.

Lanai is part of the Hawaiian Island chain and does that mean that only Oahu is the 50th state of the Union?  Can Bill Gates buy Maui?  And Warren Buffet.....Kauai?  Is the Big Island in Mark Zukerburg's future plans?

Now I fully understand the concept of buying property in any state of the Union but this seems different.

There's not a lot going on in South Dakota.....I wonder how much it would cost?

Now thinking on a bigger scale.  Maybe Castro would sell Cuba.  Hopefully one of the American icons could beat the Saudis to the punch. Has anyone asked Syria if they want to turn over their property to someone who can run the company a bit better.

Of course, as usual, I've gotten off track but I'm really confused how an island, which is part of our Union, could be sold....lock, stock and barrel.  Those 3,000 residents are going to be pissed when their eviction notice comes through.  Larry is getting ready to open a new NOBU restaurant in Malibu so
why not own part of the Hawaiian Islands.  With the prices they will charge at NOBU he could probably afford to build a tunnel from Lanai to Malibu.  A super conductor underwater transport system that moves around 1000 miles per hour.

Come on Larry.....step it up! 

It would be nice to see Mr. Ellison apply some of this amazing buying power to ideas that could benefit the planet.  Large solar, wind and other such projects. 

Just a silly thought.....

What if he's trying to corner the market on pineapples?

Two years from now a pineapple could cost $30.  Quick, get out and start buying them while you can.

We each buy two pineapples and Larry buys part of Hawaii.

The real question here is.....how often do we use Oracle's products?

Obviously way more than we thought.

Well, off to the 99 cent store to get some more sunglasses.

Michael Timothy McAlevey