Wealth & Money Quote by Neil Abercrombie

Abercrombie is doing what shrewd politicians do when they want to indict without sounding like theyre indicting: he narrates a sudden moral awakening as an economic reflex. The line pivots on "all of a sudden" twice, turning timing into evidence. Nobody had the stomach for principle, he implies, until there was an asset to protect and a budget to control. In that framing, "non-discrimination" isnt a hard-won ethic; its a newly fashionable credential, a flag people wave once theres something material at stake.

The subtext is about capture. When "the land was worth something" and "money in the bank" appears, the conversation shifts from ideals to governance, from rights to gatekeeping: "whos really going to administer this stuff". Administration sounds neutral, even boring, but Abercrombie uses it as a tell. Whoever administers decides access, sets criteria, writes exceptions, and quietly determines winners. The phrase "this stuff" is deliberately casual, the kind of dismissiveness that suggests the details are being argued not because they matter morally, but because they determine who gets a piece.

Contextually, this reads like Hawaii-era politics around development, public land, and the downstream dollars that attract contractors, agencies, and activists alike. Abercrombie positions himself as the adult in the room, skeptical of late-breaking virtue and attentive to the real fight: control of resources. Its a warning and a weapon: if you show up only when the money shows up, your principles look less like justice and more like a bid for leverage.