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Hawaii News Now posted this story about our one-dimensional economy:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/39150...-a-problem
The piece bemoans the lack of any real economy other than tourism, but unfortunately is short on details and numbers. There's one particularly telling point in the article, though:
"Meanwhile, he points out the economic boom on the mainland is much more robust, attracting Hawaii residents away to greener pastures."
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Hawaii has multiple layers of "shadow economy".
1. Underground: drugs, stolen cars, cockfighting.
2. Quasi-legit: the "guy with a machine" who digs you a "seepage pit" for cash.
3. Overhead: land-use "consultants", lawyers hired by NIMBYs, corrupt HOAs.
4. Government: short workday, long lunch, guaranteed raises, plenty benefits.
5. Emergency: anything that resembles a disaster creates unlimited overtime and automatic approvals "because FEMA will pick up the tab".
Ironically, none of these "industries" suffer the regulatory constraints that apply to our "legitimate" economy. New rules for vacation rentals and a higher tax rate for "investment real estate" will drive more people away from the island while also encouraging growth of the above "industries".
"You can have 10% of this dollar, or you can have 100% of nothing."
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Related: government grants "exemptions" without following up to see that they're legitimate -- the "historic" designation is an Oahu problem; on this island we have "ag" exemptions applied where no actual ag is happening.
(Funny thing, they already have aerial photos to determine the existence and square-footage of structures, seems like these could be used to disambiguate agricultural uses, reducing the number of in-person visits required...)
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2018/09/1...-reproach/
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Government: short workday, long lunch
I know many government employees that would take issue with such broad generalizations.. especially when they don't apply to them.
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"1. Underground: drugs, stolen cars, cockfighting."
Also: Local farm-raised meat, eggs, milk, homemade breads, candies, and various other locally raised/made items that have been regulated by the fed and state to be black-market items. In the state of Hawaii it's illegal to sell fresh raw goat's milk even if the intended purpose is to feed it to a baby goat. You have to go to Walmart or a feed store and buy an industrial processed powder (when/if they actually have it in stock) made of by-products of the cow cheese making industry mixed with lab-produced vitamins and other additives and pray the animal can actually digest that crap.
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I know many government employees who would say: I resemble that remark.
There are slackers everywhere, but in government there are no consequences.
That's something that really needs to be fixed, it doesn't have to be like this.
So, we have only one industry. Soon it'll be none. War on Tourists.
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"So, we have only one industry. Soon it'll be none."
Each recession in recent times has been worse than the one before it. If the next recession follows the pattern then Hawaii can expect tourism, and tax dollars, to dry up. We'll have no industry, no tax dollars, and a railway to nowhere.
quote:
Originally posted by kalakoa
Hawaii has multiple layers of "shadow economy".
1. Underground: drugs, stolen cars, cockfighting.
2. Quasi-legit: the "guy with a machine" who digs you a "seepage pit" for cash.
3. Overhead: land-use "consultants", lawyers hired by NIMBYs, corrupt HOAs.
4. Government: short workday, long lunch, guaranteed raises, plenty benefits.
5. Emergency: anything that resembles a disaster creates unlimited overtime and automatic approvals "because FEMA will pick up the tab".
Ironically, none of these "industries" suffer the regulatory constraints that apply to our "legitimate" economy. New rules for vacation rentals and a higher tax rate for "investment real estate" will drive more people away from the island while also encouraging growth of the above "industries".
"You can have 10% of this dollar, or you can have 100% of nothing."
Banana, I mean Mango Republic!!!
Speaking Truth to Lies / Facts to Ignorance
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I suspect that once the Republicans lose their make believe reality in which all is fine and climate change is a Chinese plot against them tourism will take a downturn as the true cost of air travel becomes apparent. As with all other things here in the islands the consequences of being so far from everywhere else will take its toll. Traveling so far for one's pleasure will quickly fall out of vogue when the fog has lifted and people understand the truth of our, as yet uncorrected, use of the environment as a dump.
Sugar died because the cost of importing fertilizer rose higher than the amount congress was willing to subsidize the industry (corporate welfare). Tourism was a disastrous replacement. But hey, when corporations want their profits in semiannual installments there's little one can do to appease them other than rape and pillage all they touch. The islands will only have a healthy economy when we sever our addiction to airfreighted goods and strive to feed ourselves rather than the imbalance we have now where all our money leaves the islands almost as fast as it arrives. Dollars taken in from tourist that in turn go away as profits made by big box stores is, in the long run, untenable. imo, of course.
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government employees that would take issue with such broad generalizations
The staff that needs a year to approve a building permit? The crew that let a $900K bus sit on blocks for 7 years? The board that can't support "truth"?
The islands will only have a healthy economy when we sever our addiction to airfreighted goods and strive to feed ourselves
Imports are still somehow cost-effective compared to local production. We need a "market correction" such as a 5x increase in shipping costs -- but then nobody could afford to live here. ("Problem solved!")
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