Hawaii ranked worst state to make a living

[kalakoa]

Hawaii would be a good location for call centers because of our geographical location

Right: all you need is English-speakers and some telecom infrastructure...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Hawaii would be a good location for call centers

There was one in East Hawaii. Seemed like a good idea to me too:

A major call center that was hailed as a solution to Hilo's chronic job shortage when it opened in 1999 will shut its doors in May (2004) and lay off all 172 employees.

Pennsylvania-based Penncro Associates Inc., a telemarketing and bill collection company, was enticed to open a Hilo office with state tax incentives and inexpensive office space. The company quickly became the fourth-largest employer in Hilo, making up for some of the sugar industry jobs lost in the 1990s.

The closure is "a result of unforeseen business circumstances due to the loss of client business at this site," Penncro said in a notice to the state Labor Department.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl...bz02a.html

[terracore]

Most of the telemarketers went out of business when the "do not call" legislation was fully implemented when the 10th circuit court of appeals upheld it in.... wait for it... February 2004. The telemarketing business wasn't a "call center" like you may imagine you get when you call your bank or your computer manufacturer for tech support. Those calls go to India or California. Telemarketers like (I'm guessing Penncro Associates) needed minimum wage workers who called and sounded like they were from the great ole U S of A to pitch whatever crap they were selling or to solicit survey information that people now get paid for to give on the internet. Hawaii had a low minimum wage, recruitable minimum wage unemployment levels, and a great western location to avoid paying people overtime for annoying people further East at the dinner table.

[rainyjim]

Always a wealth of information terracore.

I think everyone else was imagining the kind of call centers you described as being in india or cali.

[Newgirl]

Trying to get between the east/west trade is not that logical because Hawaii is not really in the Asia-West Coast shipping lanes. That's true for manufacturing, though there maybe some success in being in the middle of imports from south/east Asia. The biggest asset the islands has is ideal conditions for farming, and with California looking at water shortages for the near future, a good food processing plant with ideas for exporting fresh produce maybe the best option here.

[rainyjim]

Define ideal conditions for farming?

[kalakoa]

Hawaii is not really in the Asia-West Coast shipping lanes

True for physical goods, yes, but Hawaii does sit on the APAC-US fiber trunks.

The biggest asset the islands has is ideal conditions for farming

In theory, Hawaii could grow food for local consumption.

In practice, it's cheaper to ship it from halfway around the world.

Unfortunately, the economy is based on cheap (subsidized) gas and a near-zero minimum wage "somewhere" (with cheap shipping from the subsidized gas).

[pahoated]

The secret to Hawaiian paradise is forget about a living and just live.

One thing about all these recent surveys, not studies, are that they are from the past to the present, and multiple variables are changing rapidly. For Hawaii, from 2008 to 2015, the price of a barrel of oil went from $25 to $100. This coincided with the Great Recession, both orchestrated by the Republicans and Big Oil. They didn't believe the pre-peak oil years because that was based on science and the Republican party is the anti-science party. Amazing, but the pre-peak oil years may see the back of Big Oil broken.

What this means for Hawaii is the prospect of oil going down below $40 per barrel for the next few pre-peak years. Transportation is the fulcrum of this island economy, the rest of it like agriculture and recycling exports tip on one side, tourism and businesses on the other side. There will be a window of opportunity for import-export dependent businesses but that doesn't mean there should be an attempt at some new large scale agriculture export, beyond the successful business models that are working, like orchids and papayas. If Hawaii island could get to feeding itself and exporting to the neighbor islands as a major supplier, the economy could get flush.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[kalakoa]

the prospect of oil going down below $40 per barrel for the next few pre-peak years

Translation: everyone who levied a "fuel surcharge" during the previous peak will now rake in the bucks, because those prices aren't going down now that oil is cheap again.

forget about a living and just live

Works great if you're retired and "already got yours", doesn't work so well if you're trying to build any kind of business (unless it's milking people for a "fuel surcharge").

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

If Hawaii island could get to feeding itself and exporting to the neighbor islands as a major supplier, the economy could get flush.

There was a discussion about a year ago here on Punaweb about the future of hydroponic vegetable farming, and how advantageous that would be for some crops on Puna's rocky soils. During the same time period Hamakua Farms closed down their substantial tomato growing operation, opening up a business opportunity to someone who simply needed to fill the existing demand, not even create a new market.

Do you see any new hydroponic farms? Has anyone stepped in to grow tomatoes?


And why should they? According to anti-TMT geniuses Leonard G. Horowitz and Sherri Kane "the vast majority of Hawaii’s $3.5 billion annual illegal marijuana harvest (is) trafficked from Pahoa near the base of Mauna Kea."
http://www.waronwethepeople.com/treason-...-revealed/
For those of you keeping score, that's $77,777 of income for each man, woman, and child in Puna (pop. 45,000) every year. Think about that the next time you're in line at 1st Hawaiian Bank or Bank of Hawaii in Pahoa, behind three people cashing checks for a total of $43.89. Clearly, somebody else must have their share. Probably their fresh tomatoes too.