02-17-2009, 03:04 AM
David, you touched on one of the biggest question now being raised over these projects. How many real jobs will it create, and will these jobs be local jobs? Will the money be a direct stimulus to the local, state, or national economy?
Do we want a project creating 10 local $35,000 a year jobs or a project creating only 2 local $35,000 a year job and 2 $150,000 a year job for mainland consultants?
I also question if the jobs created will be local or if it will be so specialized that the project will be importing temporary workers, only for them to be sending the bulk of their wages back home.
On the mainland, because of interstate commerce, one state may buy stuff from another state and that state may buy it from the other state. Over time its spread around. But how many bags of Kona coffee, cans of Macadamia nuts, or containers of lava rocks will be purchased by mainland states for their projects? Odds are Hawaii's stimulus will benefit other states at a disproportionate rate over mainland states stimulus spending benefiting Hawaii.
Personally, I would rather have seen the money earmarked for employment at a huge level. Something along the lines of having peopled paid to do things versus spending money on expensive material. Spending $1,000,000 on a project with ½ of it in non local material isn’t as good an expenditure as taking that $1,000,000 and hiring 28 people at $35,000 to clean the shoreline, roadsides, replace broken signs, wash school buses, do traffic counts, etc.
Do we want a project creating 10 local $35,000 a year jobs or a project creating only 2 local $35,000 a year job and 2 $150,000 a year job for mainland consultants?
I also question if the jobs created will be local or if it will be so specialized that the project will be importing temporary workers, only for them to be sending the bulk of their wages back home.
On the mainland, because of interstate commerce, one state may buy stuff from another state and that state may buy it from the other state. Over time its spread around. But how many bags of Kona coffee, cans of Macadamia nuts, or containers of lava rocks will be purchased by mainland states for their projects? Odds are Hawaii's stimulus will benefit other states at a disproportionate rate over mainland states stimulus spending benefiting Hawaii.
Personally, I would rather have seen the money earmarked for employment at a huge level. Something along the lines of having peopled paid to do things versus spending money on expensive material. Spending $1,000,000 on a project with ½ of it in non local material isn’t as good an expenditure as taking that $1,000,000 and hiring 28 people at $35,000 to clean the shoreline, roadsides, replace broken signs, wash school buses, do traffic counts, etc.