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What is there on a group of islands in the mid Pacific to base a lucrative economy on?
It's a captive audience; all you have to do is wire yourself into the supply chain somewhere and take a little profit off the top (of everyone else's consumption).
begin developing an IT economy in Hawaii
Not happening: most companies still practice "management by walking around", and they won't open a field office (too expensive) to keep those workers in line. (Individual contributors who are capable of working unsupervised ... simply can't get the broadband to their home office anyway, so that's a non-starter.)
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Individual contributors ... simply can't get the broadband to their home office anyway
It's true, not everyone on the island can get broadband in their neighborhood, but many can. A worker may have to compromise in the exact location of their home or office, but some will make that choice in order to have a job. There is so much Fortune 500 bandwidth running through my neighborhood as I type, I believe if I put my ear to the lava I may almost hear a deep hum. IT jobs are not common in Hawaii (not yet anyway) but they are possible.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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I don't know why one can not set up a warehouse near the port to create a sub assembly plant to pre assemble components destined to mainland factories using the parts from say China to build, say instrument clusters for the airline or car manufacturers. When Toyota ran the assembly plant that Tesla now has, they had sub assembly plants scattered throughout the area putting tire rim assemblies, dash assemblies, engine assemblies etc..
Why not here?
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set up a warehouse near the port
It's already there. The Foreign Trade Zone building is right across from FedEx. Tax free imports if used to assemble a product there. Nobody uses it.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Then I guess it's a problem with the States Economic Director not wanting to promote jobs by "sales pitching" to fill the free trade warehouse. More ineptitude in government. IMHO
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The Foreign Trade Zone building is right across from FedEx.
I have some 25-year-old books that describe the FTZ building as a "priority" for the Governor.
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Any assembly that would be cost effective here would need to be small, light, and expensive items like specialized medical equipment. I have a friend who is an engineer with a company that makes that sort of thing in Portland, Oregon. The catheters he works with are 1/20th the size of human hairs, the clean room technology could be set up anywhere and you don't have to compete with a bunch of low bid off shore sweat shops in other countries. The FDA does not make it easy to import medical equipment.
None of the technical people at his company are from the Portland area, the tax climate for businesses isn't much better in Oregon than Hawaii, and the cost of living in PDX is not low, especially housing. But the owner of the company wanted to live there, so that is where he opened his production facility, then he recruited talent from all over the world to work there. The same thing could happen in Hawaii, if someone like that wanted to live here enough to move here and bring jobs like that with them. Hawaii doesn't do a very good job of looking for opportunities like that, and the anti-science vibe coming from the whole TMT debate won't help either.
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quote:
Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge
set up a warehouse near the port
It's already there. The Foreign Trade Zone building is right across from FedEx. Tax free imports if used to assemble a product there. Nobody uses it.
No one uses it because there are so many Hawaii-based restrictions, fees, permits...
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I've heard that Hawaii would be a good location for call centers because of our geographical location / time-zone. People need call centers active during all hours of the day and we could fill that niche because of our unique isolation.
Maybe someone could explain that more eloquently than I. I get the concept but I feel like I did a piss poor job relaying it.
Thoughts / ideas? Tell me why this would never work!
Alohas
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Hawaii would make for a decent, evening shift eastern time zone call center. Call centers don't pay that much to begin with and asking people to work evening hours is even tougher. However, with a 6 hour time zone difference in the summer at least, Hawaii can cover the east coast well into the evening without needing the Hawaii worker to "work late".
GEICO already has a call center on Oahu, but serves Hawaii customers almost exclusively.
