Hawaii Tourism Cool Down Looms - good or bad?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

borrowing 10 billion dollars a day

A lot of that was from the free money given out during COVID. People couldn’t work, but needed money to survive.. Businesses weren’t open, and it was deemed preferable to pay them money than to have them close down. Etc.

Inflation was/is from money pumped into the economy that was not earned or produced from manufacturing, work, etc.

But the alternative probably would have been far worse.

[HiloJulie]

Hawaii's bureaucracy and anti-business laws have made any alternatives to tourism difficult, and now they are making tourism difficult. 

Case in point- these are figures off the internet so may not be 100% accurate and currency conversion plays a role so just consider them ballpark.  I choose Japan as the reference because we get a lot of Japanese tourists.

Minimum wage in Hawaii:  $14/hour.  Increases $2/hour every other year.

Minimum wage in Japan:  $6.09 - $7.66 depending on Prefecture, average $7.17.

Average wage of a hotel housekeeper in Japan:  $8.24/hour.  Average of a Hawaii housekeeper $16-$21.83.  And now it's considered appropriate to add a gratuity. 

Annual average income of a Japanese worker:  $41,509.  Hawaii:  $61,410.

Hawaii hotel taxes (Oahu) 17.9%.  Japan 9%.  Hawaii resort fees per night $30-$50.  Japan- resort fees are not common.

Restaurants- moderately priced: Hawaii $30-50. Japan $15-30.

Maybe our tourism is suffering because we're pricing everybody out?

All 100% true and correct.

But one very important comparison is health care costs.

Japan has, OK, "socialized" health care which pays 70% of your health care costs. Private Insurance is available for purchase, thru employers or on the public exchange which covers the other 30%. At about 1/3 the cost of their American counterparts.

Japanese residents also live 6 years longer than Americans.

Further, Japanese health care has a very liberal mandatory maternity leave program that allows for 6-week pre-natal and 8 weeks post-natal as well as allowing either spouse UP TO ONE FULL YEAR of paid childcare time off for the baby's 1st year of life.

Also, of interesting note - Japan's obesity rate is 4%. America's is 40%.

ETA: Japan ranks between Number 1 and 3 for overall healthcare, while America hovers in the high 60's to low 70's

[terracore]

The difference is that Japan has a healthcare system, and the USA has a profit-driven illness management system.

TPTB want their constituents fat, sick, and dependent. A dependent populace is a compliant one.

The N in SNAP stands for "nutrition". You know... like Red Bull, Mountain Dew, Snickers. Anything so long as it's not served hot.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Japan's obesity rate is 4%. America's is 40%.

And some of that 4% are sumo.