WHY YOU DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN HAWAII

  From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14        4142    15512         1151        189       712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194

April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853    13667        3025      3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July   7          251      8440        1595         817     411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532     423 

Sept  22       2228      9326          839        279     124

Oct    6         2102      8255          543        315       59

Nov   3         1436      7830         186         458       23

Dec    1        1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan    7         2025      6729         148        285      140

       14          2303      7872         238        430      128

       21          2777      9091         396        489      103

       26          3143   10,554         606        575        94

       27          2689   10,261         662        627        71

       28          2732   10,516         779        862      133

Feb  2           2990   12,012         946        991      175

        9           2785   11,827         1295      1241      213

      10           2465   11,110           922        659     203

      11            1917    11,193          1121        804      146

      17            2184   11,440        1129        496      435

      24           1823     9,809        996        304       40

Mar     2        1778     7,756         335        173        28

           3        1258      7654         594         201       41

Summary:

• Finally, finally, the USA is showing a sign of real recovery.
• Also, we "only" had 49,091 new cases yesterday (in parentheses: new deaths/million population)
• Germany  202,338 (2409)
• South Korea  198,802 (3898)
• Vietnam  118,790 (1200)
• Russia  93,026
• Japan  71,570
• Brazil  64,054
• France  60,225
• Netherlands  58,283 (3428)
• Turkey  49,424
• USA  49,091 (147)

From Ozy's Presidential Brief this morning:

Russian shelling early Friday caused a fire inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex in southern Ukraine. The fire, which was confined to a training building and has not led to an increase in radiation levels, has since been extinguished. Europe’s largest nuclear plant is now under Russian control. Ukraine’s nuclear authorities said that one of the six units was operating, another was in “outage,” two were being cooled down, and two others had been disconnected from the grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that an explosion at the complex would be “the end for everybody, the end of Europe.” (Sources: NYT, BBC)

The two great dangers of this Ukraine versus Russia slaughter are nuclear.  The destruction of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe will for a very long time affect the entirety of the continent.  If Putin becomes insanely desperate, the potential of a nuclear holocaust could forever doom Humanity.  Good reasons for abandoning fission nuclear power into the future, and destroying all nuclear warheads.

On to the subject of today, as long as there is no volcanic haze over the state, Hawaii certainly has the best weather of the nation, and maybe world.  On the other hand, I'm prejudiced.  At least two rankings have California #1 and Hawaii #2.  But I lived in California several times.  It was just too cold at Stanford in the winter, for I remember freezing on my bike peddling to classes in the morning, and San Francisco is always uncomfortably chilled.  I spent two summers at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and once golfed even though the temperature was 110 F.  California is suffering through a long drought period.  Los Angeles has sunshine 73% of the time, but there is still air pollution.  And The Atlantic says that the California Dream is Dying.  There are good reasons people are moving out of the state.

Hawaii went through a 36-year period from 3January1983 into 2019 when vog blanketed much of the Big Island, wafting over to Honolulu and Kauai now and then, so bad that I avoided golfing several times.  Ironically enough, I was golfing on the Volcano Golf Course that day when the ground shook, and almost immediately, we could see fountains of lava only a few miles away from where we were standing.

In any case, YouGovAmerica agrees with me about the best state, overall:

California is only #12. I've also lived in Virginia (#3), Louisiana (#30) and Washington DC (last, #51).

Here are some other rankings:

• Sure, we are only the 8th safest state in the Union, but that means we're more secure than 42 states.  #1 is Minnesota and in last place is Mississippi.  
• We are #2 only to Massachusetts as the healthiest state. #50 is, yes again, Mississippi.
• I can't believe we're only the sixth most beautiful state, with California #1, followed by Montana, Alaska, Utah and Arizona.

• 
  #9 by Human Development Index.  
• Massachusetts is #1, Connecticut #2 and Minnesota #3.  
• Notice how all those cold states score well, sort of like the ranking of the world, where #1 is Norway, #2 Ireland and #3 Switzerland.  The USA is #17, Russia is #52 and China #85.
• Maui ranks #4 as the best place to visit, with South Island New Zealand at #1, Paris #2 and Bora Bora #3.  

However, living in Paradise has a price, which is why you don't want to live in Hawaii.  Wallace Hub hates my state and lists us at #42 as Best States to Live.  WH picked 52 key indicators of livability, and said New Jersey was #1.  New Jersey?  Who wants to live there?  Massachusetts is #2 and New York #3.  

Maybe it's because Wallet Hub is headquartered in the East...D.C.  Who are they, anyway?  A free credit report and daily credit score organization.  Got a 3.5 out of 5 rating from PC Magazine.

Anyway, Hawaii's cost of living is high.

Rank	State	Cost of living	Most expensive category	Least expensive category	Median household income ($)
1	Hawaii	93.3% more than avg.	Housing	Health care	83,102
2	New York	48.2% more than avg.	Housing	Utilities	72,108
3	California	42.2% more than avg.	Housing	Health care	80,440

#51 is Mississippi, with a cost of living 16.7% less than average and a median household income of $45,792.  Maryland has the highest at $86,738 and New Jersey is #2 at $85,751.  Hawaii is #3.

I'm not the only person deprecating Hawaii.  Here is an article from LivingInHawaii.com on 12 Reasons You Should Not Move to Hawaii:

• #1    There is a good chance you'll be living at what feels like poverty.
• Many family members work at several jobs.
• Very little expendable income.
• Substandard housing conditions.
• Live on the financial edge.
• Say you need to be earning at least $150k/year, and a lot more with a larger family.
• Millionaires should be okay.
• 
  #2    One of the worst places to start a business.
• Wallace Hub would agree with this.
• Hawaii is always at the bottom of the list in terms of starting a business.
• Hard to compete with all the struggling small family business.

• 
  #3  Hawaii is near the bottom in public education.
• Has one of the highest enrollment in private schools.  Why?  Parents try to avoid public schools.  WalletHub ranked Hawaii #39 overall and #43 for quality.
• Private schools are expensive.  Around $17,000/student.

• 
  #4  Pay is below national averages, even though the cost of living is higher.
• Expect a 20% cut in pay or more from what you're making on the mainland.
• #5  First time home ownership is near impossible.
• The median price of a single family home on Oahu is $830,000, and $435,000 for a condo.
• Need to rent?  Here you are in big trouble.

• 
  #6  Traffic is really bad.
• Hawaii's traffic is about the worst.  People moving here from Los Angeles attest to this.
• In some parts of Oahu, you need to wake up at 5AM to get to work at 8AM.  If you're coming from Waianae and other parts west, you also are driving into the sun, coming and going.
• Then when there is an accident or anything more cataclysmic, it sometimes takes 8 hours to come home.

• 
  #7  Fewer choices, less competition, poorer service and higher prices.
• Get a bumper sticker:  Ainokea.
• What does this mean.  I no care.
• The Aloha Spirit creates a shrug-and-bear-it-type attitude.

• 
  #8  You may not recover from the culture shock.
• Most affected are haoles.  Or Caucasians.
• Just as a beginning, Hawaii celebrates statehood with a holiday, the only state that does so.  Yet, there are protests about illegality and Hawaii government overthrow.
• As everyone is a minority, White people are the lowest on the totem pole.  At one time they ran the territory.  Memories persist.

• 
  #9  Everything is really expensive.  Wait a minute, I said this in #1.
• #10  Everything is really crowded.  But then again, Hawaii, at 291/square mile is way below DC at 10,589 and New Jersey at 1210.
• #11  No road trips.  Yes, no bridge to the mainland.
• #12  Visiting family is really expensive.  Just the airfare makes it impossible for whole families to go home.
• #13  Less food variety.  
• Now this I got to disagree, but the discussion starts with how great Costco was to get food variety.  What?  
• No good Italian, Greek, Mexican, pizza and standard restaurants found everywhere else in the USA.  What???  
• Try getting decent Philly Cheesesteak.  That is dangerous food, and we get it regularly at 15 Craigside.  
• How many times can you go to the same Italian restaurant?  Well, got something there.

• 
  #14  You'll always be an outsider.
• Anyone, especially a mainland haole, faces this prejudice.  But hey, how is this different from any other state or country?
• Good reason for leaving the state.  
• Can you believe that for the fifth straight year the population of Hawaii dropped!?

The Huffington Post has 18 worst things about Hawaii.  I encourage you to read them, for some are sufficiently different and true.  We are also the highest taxed state, all things included.

I might add one more, which is a composite what is wrong with Hawaii today.

• 
  There is a crab mentality:  if I can't have it, neither can you.    
• Nothing ever gets done.  The bigger the more impossible.
• The current rail project is symptomatic of our failures:  $12.45 billion and 11 years late...and it is still not here.  If "they" had only listened to me and combined a Hawaii World Expo with mass transit, we'd be in great shape.  Read my HuffPo.

• 
  More about transport, the SuperFerry actually came, then went.  As an ocean state, the concept made sense.  I rode it.  Loved it.  You know why this one went down the drain?  The state Supreme Court ruled that the developers failed to complete an environmental study.  Sure, this one was peanuts:  Hawaii spent $34 million and did get back $425,000 in recompense.  Then another report said we spent $71 million and still owe $33 million.

• 
  Every authority approved the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope.  The Hawaiians objected.  Now it might never be built, but nevermind, for this largest scope would already be #2 if ever completed.

• 
  The major projects Hawaii now will have will be environmentally caused.  
• The Navy Red Hill fuel storage leak has to be corrected, for the entirety of Honolulu's freshwater comes from essentially the same aquifer.  Saw how much that HART rail project cost?  This Navy fiasco way back in 2018 was said to cost $10 billion to fix.

• 
  Sea level rise will overwhelm Waikiki and much of our coastline.  Get this, just to protect our highways will cost $15 billion.  Want to add up those other walls and things?
• The problem with environmental projects is that they are money losing.  No profit is made from these investments.
• Supposedly there are 29 planned renewable energy projects representing up to $4 billion in investment.  Let's see how far these go.
• 
  For those who live in Hawaii, all this has become so routine that most can't envision anything else.  I've been to Busan, Dubai, Singapore and a dozen other locations that have gotten their act together.  What a difference and what a shame.
• What is my solution?  The Blue Revolution.  A mere $150 million for the Pacific International Ocean Station and only $150 billion for the first floating city to host the World Ocean Expo in 2050.

So if I were you, I'd forget about moving to Hawaii.  However, we do need your tourist money, so here are 30 mistakes to avoid before your first time in Hawaii.

-