Costs and Employment of MK Observatories

[Guest]

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/MKO-facts.pdf

Don't know if some of these Staff's cross over between the Observatories or not.

[Kapoho Joe]

Certainly a benefit to the community imho.

[TomK]

"http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/MKO-facts.pdf

Don't know if some of these Staff's cross over between the Observatories or not."

I have to thank AP for showing how much money is coming into the Big Island economy from the current observatories. The operating costs shown in that table come from other countries as well as the US mainland and are spent here. Additional money, not included in the operational costs, also comes here from visiting astronomers and engineers (I could provide other examples), so there's actually more money being spent in the local economy from current observatory operations than reported in the table.

Thanks!

[kalakoa]

I was surprised to see that the observatories employ nearly 500 people, which puts them in the top 20 with healthcare, hospitality, and government employers.

[TomK]

The number is actually higher than that, but a few people in each observatory are employed directly by the countries that fund the observatories. Even that money gets spent here. Those employees live here.

[TomK]

This is worth a read, a blog post from Andrew Cooper. It's relevant and accurate.

http://darkerview.com/wordpress/?p=19137

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Thanks TomK,
I found the following excerpts from the darkerview post in stark contrast to repeated comments by the protestors about the observatories:

The observatories hire local first, only if a qualified person cannot be found locally does the job go to an outsider... The largest observatory, the W. M. Keck Observatory features a staff of whom more than half were hired locally.
...
Any given day you can stand on the Mauna Kea access road and watch the trucks of local businesses go by... Elevator repairmen, fire alarm service, water deliveries, cryogenic liquid deliveries, construction services... supplied by local businesses, local jobs.
...
Astronomers do not fix telescopes. Mechanics, welders, electricians, engineers, and technicians fix telescopes... you need folks who can swing a wrench.

Sometimes when I read claims by protestors that the jobs and financial impact (including scholarships) by the observatories to Big Island residents is negligible, I can't help but feel the anti-telescope crowd is, what's the word I'm looking for... shortsighted?

“We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope,” James Baldwin to Margaret Mead in the book A Rap On Race

[Eric1600]

I've met a few that work in the astronomy industry and when I read the comments on the civilbeat article from another thread this quote (as it relates to the remains found on maunakea) also reflects my experience with those workers.

quote:

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I spent my lunch sitting with a table of Hawaiians, all guys who work for observatories, OMKM and DLNR. The subject of the days was of course "the bones". These are guys who grew up in the homesteads and Hilo, I have to listen close to understand the pidgin mixed with English. No respect for the protesters at this table, quite a bit to say about the opponents that was not very complimentary. You say the community is opposed, I can say with certainty that there is a good chunk of the local community that is totally in support of astronomy on Mauna Kea. The polls say half, seems about right.

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http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/09/big-isl.../#c-331539