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> There is a perspective [in Hawaiʻi] that we are reliant on the military for our jobs, economy, and security, so the state has not questioned the assertions of
by thr0wawayf00 5y ago
> There is a perspective [in Hawaiʻi] that we are reliant on the military for our jobs, economy, and security, so the state has not questioned the assertions of the military in a lot of ways, including with regards to Red Hill. . . . I’m hoping that recent events have demonstrated to our legislators that the navy can’t be trusted with our water, this foundation of our lives. They have promised us time and again that they are somehow able to think of everything to protect us and this irreplaceable water source, yet they have failed time and again to do just that.
Military protection at the expense of essential services is some of the more sobering irony I've seen. What's the point of having the biggest, baddest military in the world if they make your community uninhabitable in the process?
- bpodgursky 5y agoCalling Honolulu uninhabitable is kind of silly. Pearl Harbor is an enormous base. Incidents like this tell basically nothing about the base rate of military vs business vs residential environmental accidents. And it's not about "military protection" as much as "the US military pumps ridiculous amounts of money into the local area".
- thr0wawayf00 5y agoI don't think it's that silly since there's a very real risk to water supply contamination. As we saw in Flint, MI, apathy absolutely allows mass degradation of important infrastructure to the point of failure. But we accept it because it's not happening in our community.
- juanani 5y ago
- micromacrofoot 5y agoBased on its historical role as a pacific garrison, the military likely cares more about it being theirs rather than it being habitable at all.
- AniseAbyss 5y agoInteresting I'd have thought tourism is the economic engine of Hawaii.
- brian_cloutier 5y agoMost important questions have multi-causal answers, without additional information I would guess that both "tourism is the economic engine" and "military bases are the economic engine" are likely to be incorrect. Hawaiian GDP seems to have dropped ~8% in 2020 [1] where tourism spending plummeted let's say 50% [2]. I would expect that Hawaiian military payroll has stayed roughly fixed during the pandemic. This seems to put an upper bound on tourism at ~20% GDP. Quite high! You would not want to lose it, but not the sole engine of economic success. [1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/187859/gdp-of-the-us-federal-state-of-hawaii-since-1997/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/187859/gdp-of-the-us-fed... [2]: https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/news/news-releases/2021/hawaii-visitor-statistics-released-for-june-2021/ https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/news/news-releases/20...
- hammock 5y agoI like the math, just to point out that you are perhaps forgetting transfer payments, government aid etc since the pandemic so tourism may be higher than 20%
- bobthepanda 5y agoFrom Wikipedia: > Since statehood in 1959, tourism has been the largest industry, contributing 24.3% of the gross state product (GSP) in 1997, despite efforts to diversify... In 2009, the United States military spent US$12.2 billion in Hawaii, accounting for 18% of spending in the state for that year. 75,000 United States Department of Defense personnel live in Hawaii.
- drjasonharrison 5y agoIf anyone has a breakdown of this that fits into these (or other) nice categories please share. Based on my searches: (1) Tourism (this includes real estate rentals, entertainment, travel) (2) Government (defense) (3) Ocean surface transportation
- 8note 5y agoI thought Hawaii was more occupation than protection? The protection is for the mainland US