11-27-2017, 07:14 AM
We live on an island chain in the middle of the Pacific.
We are about 2500 miles from California, about 4000 miles from Japan, 3800 miles from Brisbane, Australia and
so on.
It's nice to have tourism, but even traveling to here is expensive and time consuming.
Our kind of tourist market is very sensitive to the news and world economy.
Ultimately, it cannot be relied on, long term.
Another major part of our economy is retirement remittances(SS, pensions, returns on savings and
investments).
These funds are mostly not produced here, but are spent here by retirees.
Then there are Federal remittances, largely military, but also subsidies for public spending.
Therefor, our real, local economy here is very small, and that's is why we "offshore" even those few
enterprises that start here, even juice and beer.
Then too, Hawaii's population is too small (1.4 million) to, by itself survive with mainland standards
of living without close ties with the "mainlands" of North America and Asia.
Conducting most kinds of business here is burdened by high overhead, and our culture of corruption
and limited competency in business and government. (See the HDP, OHA, DHHL DOE, HELCO, the Legislature and on
and on).
Our best way to have a real, self-sufficient economy, with mainland standards, is to expand R&D that we do here by at least 100x.
That means astronomy and astrophysics, energy, agricultural and medical R&D.
These things have relatively small footprints and produce good quality jobs that would support a high standard of living here in Hawaii.
It also gets around the cost of shipping and isolation as the results are transmitted electronically rather than physically most of the time.
We are about 2500 miles from California, about 4000 miles from Japan, 3800 miles from Brisbane, Australia and
so on.
It's nice to have tourism, but even traveling to here is expensive and time consuming.
Our kind of tourist market is very sensitive to the news and world economy.
Ultimately, it cannot be relied on, long term.
Another major part of our economy is retirement remittances(SS, pensions, returns on savings and
investments).
These funds are mostly not produced here, but are spent here by retirees.
Then there are Federal remittances, largely military, but also subsidies for public spending.
Therefor, our real, local economy here is very small, and that's is why we "offshore" even those few
enterprises that start here, even juice and beer.
Then too, Hawaii's population is too small (1.4 million) to, by itself survive with mainland standards
of living without close ties with the "mainlands" of North America and Asia.
Conducting most kinds of business here is burdened by high overhead, and our culture of corruption
and limited competency in business and government. (See the HDP, OHA, DHHL DOE, HELCO, the Legislature and on
and on).
Our best way to have a real, self-sufficient economy, with mainland standards, is to expand R&D that we do here by at least 100x.
That means astronomy and astrophysics, energy, agricultural and medical R&D.
These things have relatively small footprints and produce good quality jobs that would support a high standard of living here in Hawaii.
It also gets around the cost of shipping and isolation as the results are transmitted electronically rather than physically most of the time.