(Honolulu International Airport was recently granted an additional $16.5 million for infrastructure improvements from the U.S. This includes the bus system, roads, ports and airports on every island, which were built by and are maintained by the state. That said, pretty much all transportation on or between the islands is subsidized in one way or another. But the most effective ways to combat the high cost of living on those islands is likely to be more practical travel between islands needs to become more efficient and affordable to a lot more people. In regulatory terms, policymakers can make it easier for businesses to have a foot in multiple counties by simplifying bureaucratic requirements.

In our digital era, this can be done by improving Internet capacities that allow people to work remotely. To do that requires finding ways to further intertwine the economies of the various islands. Increasing interisland competition - if done at a large enough scale - might just lower the cost of living, or at least make it more manageable for more residents. The controversial Hawaii Superferry transported people and vehicles between Oahu and Maui from 2007 until 2009, the year the company that owned the ferry declared bankruptcy. Basic economics suggest this would translate into more economic activity and, likely, job opportunities and improved salaries. “That’s the entire theory of trade in economics,” said former Bank of Hawaii Chief Economist Paul Brewbaker. Now imagine that they could transport the tools of their trade or on-sale goods with them. Imagine an archipelago where more people could pass more efficiently - and affordably - between islands. This partly explains how a jar of cashews can cost $26 on Molokai or, more importantly, spare car parts can be even more expensive beyond Oahu. When there is limited - or a total absence of - competition, a seller of goods or services can more easily jack up prices. For one, it aggravates the frequent lack of competition. On neighbor islands this has many effects. Rightly or wrongly, people often bring up Hawaii’s geographic remoteness to explain our nation-leading high prices.īut there is another geographic element that costs us: We live in America’s most fractured state - and the space between islands comes at a price.

Flickr fees