quote:
Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge
What is there on a group of islands in the mid Pacific to base a lucrative economy on?
...
There are already businesses here with people stationed in Hawaii for that purpose, one in HPP with a T1 line connecting a large multinational business in the manner described above.
Alaska and Hawaii have similar circunstances.
They are remote from the rest of the country.
They have little to no economy other than government spending and tourism.
That was true of Alaska before the oil boom, and is again becoming a fact of life now that that resource is winding down.
The best things they had going for them was the pork generated by their long term powerful senators and congressmen.
The stupidity of the Alaskans voting Uncle Ted out and the death of Daniel Inouye were terrible blows to both states.
How many local jobs are provided by these businesses?
Or, are they just savvy people making a good living using information technology?
I tend to be suspicious about what is actually going on and the potential for development.
My favorite example, of savvy people living the good life using technology, is the person[s] living in the huge, log, lodge like house with the huge commercial communication sized satellite dish sitting next to it along the Taylor Highway, Alaska state highway 5, just on the north side of the Fortymile River bridge. The Taylor highway is a 160 mile long gravel road.
The bridge sits at mile 112.
http://s131.photobucket.com/user/solo_vo...z.jpg.html
The satellite dish is hard to see, but you can see its shadow just to the right of the house.
I used to recreate with the types of state and federal employees I mentioned in my previous post.
This bridge is a takeout and putin for river trips.
Take it for what it's worth, but my sources of information about that house were from a number of BLM, National Park and other fedreal and some state employees. I was told by a number of different people on a number of different occasions that that house was lived in by someone that made his living buying and selling stocks, the dish was his means of communication for "work".
My sources were not official.
But, they were all in agreement over time.
OK, now back to Hawaii.
I'll believe that there is a movement to begin developing an IT economy in Hawaii only when I see it being done on a scale that can benefit the people living here.
One or a few more actual businesses with little or no actual effect on the local economy, are the exceptions that prove the rule.
EDIT:
Plus, how many of the island nations in the Pacific are trying to establish an IT based economy and not faring very well beyond creating an income for a few savvy individuals? I see a lot of them in small operations providing domains [or whatever they're called - .to, etc], and small scale server farms.
