The jones act is a really interesting problem here in Alaska too. As a commercial fisherman I have to have an American made and flagged boat, even at 22’. It’s even the main reason all Alaskan cruises start in Vancouver Canada. So they can staff with cheap labor and Panamanian flagged ships.
dont let trump let you speak like that, he hates non americans, probably as much as they hate him. you would have though he would be happy more folks to buy his crappy watches🤣
I was born and raised on Maui and even though I knew everything was more expensive and logistics were complicated I never really put much thought into it. Watching this video I realized I only ever saw Matson, Young Brothers, and Pasha Hawaii shipping containers when I’d pass Kahului Harbor. As always it’s another super interesting video from Wendover that I personally appreciated so keep it up.
@@willtheprodigy3819 If you live on Oahu and act respectful of living there you won't be treated like that, and avoid areas like Waianae living wise where Native Hawaiians live without any issues. I live here now, White, and I've had no issues. Just respect people and don't act entitled.
@@willtheprodigy3819 US mainlander of Euro ancestry here... I lived on Maui from 2015-2019... I found the people of Hawaii to be very welcoming and accepting, *IF* you take the time to learn the local culture, respect it, and to some extent adopt it. Read up, and listen more than you speak, is my top advice. It also helps if you work in a job that directly benefits local people (medical caregiver > timeshare salesperson, for example).
Sorry, but if the Port of Honolulu gets wiped out by a tsunami or hurricane, it's a near certainty that both Honolulu International Airport AND Pearl Harbor would be in just as bad shape. The airport is barely over one mile away, and at the same elevation. The entrance to Pearl Harbor is less than six miles from the entrance to Honolulu harbor. Neither is a viable backup plan for a true natural disaster.
Wheeler Army Airfield has a massive landing strip at 500ft elevation, that can be used as a back up, while repairs are underway… it’s unwise to think that the plan to procure islands for their strategic location and military necessity had no underlying contingency planning…
@@igorpshenichnikov519 That would still be no way near enugh to supply the whole island chain, a single Runway will not do mutch diffrence if something happens (especially if you consider like medivac and the importand transports of disaster relive that will have to land/start there too).
Doesn’t matter which Hawaiian ports gets destroyed. Whatever happens to California will affect Hawaiians for 80-90 percent of what Hawaii needs is imported. Shoyu, furkake and all that
Hawaii used to be self-sufficent in milk. In the early 1980s the dairy farm industry collapsed in scandal. The cows were found to be fed byproducts of the fruit farming industry (pineapple rinds etc) that were sprayed with pesticides in the field... and it was detected in the cow's milk. Now all milk and other dairy products are flown in from the US west coast. I'm from Canada in a very rural county; the lowest population county (13K) in my province. At the turn of the millennium, there were over a dozen commercial dairy farms here, now there are only three. Which is still more than all the milking farms in the entire states of Alaska and Hawaii put together (pop. 2.2M). And in size even the smallest of the three milks more cows than the AK & HI farms combined.
Geez sure doesnt stink of us interference in how suddenly a critical self sufficient industry managed to collapse and was remedied by wholly relying on the country that has made you a colonial vassal.
In Lahaina in 1970, and if you were out of milk by mid-afternoon on Friday, you would not have milk again until Monday afternoon. The milk was locally produced, so I imagine it was like that for the entire weekends. Pretty sure the cows were still producing milk on weekends, but evidently the delivery drivers weren't working.
When I moved from Oahu to Maui in 2021 due to young brothers monopoly, it was actually faster and cheaper to ship my vehicle to Long Beach from Oahu and then turn right back around and ship it from Long Beach to Maui insane! Matson did it in three weeks for around $1900. Young brothers was quoting me $2500 and 2 months.
@@jk484 finding a spot on a ship can be tough. You have to consider that most folks shipping things don't wait until they're manufacturered to organize shipping. They're organizing far in advance to keep things rolling smoothly, moving their products. At least that's how it works in most cases, I'm not sure if that's accurate in this very specific case. Basically shipping for next week was booked 3 months ago.
@@jk484 Wild guess is they were going to wait till they could fill up an entire barge. You'd think there would be some kind of market for ocean going ferry service between the islands.
Shit like this is how current economic systems reinforce environmental damage. It's always cheaper to not destroy the environment, but subsidies and enforced monopolies allow some to externalize that cost onto the rest of us. Another great example is in healthcare. The healthcare system absorbs the costs of pollution more than anything else - but is also allowed to push that cost onto people directly. Oh! And trucking on paved roads! The damage a truck does to the road is like 1000x what the average personal vehicle does, but they only pay 10x what an individual has to pay for using a vehicle. In other words, every payment you make in fuel and registration is going straight to the pockets of trucking companies. Neat, huh?
The comment at 4:51 is a non sequitur. Ships sailing from Asia to the west coast of the United States follow a Great Circle route and actually go near Alaska and through the Aleutian Islands; so Hawaii would be a substantial diversion. Also, most of the ships on the Asia-North America run are too big to be accommodated into the Sand Island Terminal in Hawaii. They draw too much water and the container cranes in Hawaii are geared for ships much smaller - 2 to 3K TEUs vice 8 to 12k TEUs.
Topic driven RUclipsrs aren't known for their in-depth research on the topics they cover. It's infortainment, not expert analysis. They spend X number of hours and put out a video.
Fun fact: when disasters hit Hawaii, we do not have the luxury of evacuating. There are simply not planes to get us out. As a kid, it was wild to me. That mainlanders can just leave instead of battening down and preparing for a long haul. So remember, when hearing about the weaknesses in our supply chain, remember that what is citizens are one bad hurricane away from being stranded in a destroyed city with dwindling food and no way out.
@@Praisethesunson We can't even properly help the Carolina's which are in our backyard with a fraction of the affected population. @emily Yup, if the government wanted to save Hawaii after getting hit it would require one of the largest sealift and airlift operations in history. 1.44 million folks. Though, from a layman's perspective as long as fresh water supplies could be maintained locally, actual deaths would be minimal if assistance was not delayed.
@@Flight042 the good news is that our water systems are pretty good! The bad news is that if food imports are cut off, most estimates say we have a week until we run out of food. So better get those ports open in a week or two!
I mean that's what is in midwest do for tornados is just bunker down and ride it out, one storms come up to fast wouldn't be enough time to drive move away anyway
I work at Lowes in Kahului Maui and I deal supply chain annoyances every day. I work in the appliance department and if you want an appliance we don’t have in stock (which happens often, as we are the busiest appliance retailer on Island, we sell stuff faster than we can get it in) it takes us at least a month to get it in, an because of how many stops the appliances have they often come in damaged, and then we have to reorder them and wait an additional month to get stuff in.
@@ahadumer418 Unprofitable. Remember cargo, especially sealift operate on volume. While Hawaii has 1.44 million souls, LA alone has 3.822 million. The local economy just can't justify foreign cargo ships making the stop with the Jones act.
@@kyotra no. It’s difficult to get repairs on island. As far as I know Lake Appliance repair is pretty much the only company on island that can fix all brands. I recommend them to all my customers because all the other appliance companies aren’t in business anymore here. If anyone here knows another in Maui please do tell.
On the island of Hawaii (the Big Island), there are enough small farms today that nearly every community has a farmers' market that's open every day, and the rest have markets open at least 1 or 2 days a week. Local produce is available usually at a lower cost than at supermarkets, and always at a much higher quality. Still, not everyone uses those markets regularly, so I'm not sure whether they could feed the island's entire population at current levels. Also, the Big Island is as big as the rest of the islands combined, and only has a small fraction of the population of Honolulu. Its population is lower today than it was before Captain Cook. Clearly, even there, they're making less efficient use of the land for producing food than it was in the past, but they do have more land per person. It also has some areas with a significantly lower cost of living, mainly because the risk of volcano damage is so high that the grid doesn't even extend everywhere and you can't buy home insurance.
Native Hawaiian populations pre contact estimate between 200,000- 1 million persons. They continued to grow and thrive until Captain Cook arrived along with other colonizers.
The main problem is see on the BigIsland now is that a lot of the land that is actually suitable for farming (like: it has dirt on it) is too expensive to farm and has turned into up to 10 acre lawns of ultra-rich people unless they bought it years ago.
@@marenpurves4493 there is a good amount of farmable land on the big island, but due to leftovers from the sugar cane industry (and an exceedingly poor investment into eucalyptus trees), a lot of the dirt in those areas needs to be completely rebuilt. There aren't too many landowners who have massive portions of the island restricting farming, but the south side of the island has very little soil so you're definitely not wrong. It could absolutely be done with time and (a lot of) money though.
@@9871ish Oh, absolutely. The eucalyptus trees don't bother me half as much as the acres of lawns that may have a few sheep or cattle to keep them mowed on them just north of Hilo where houses are on the market for millions of dollars.
@@marenpurves4493 they are less of an eyesore for sure, but most eucalyptus trees literally make the soil poisonous for other plants which has made that section of Hamakua impossible to farm until the soil is restored. But you're totally right, there are plenty of 5-15 acre parcels with an overpriced, oversized house and a manicured lawn. So wasteful
Could be worse, at least a ship can usually move in a straight line, instead of being limited to winding roads. It´s also usually more cost effective per container than trucks or planes.
@@cyriliolarger land mass, more agriculture to feed themselves and more people so being able to transport in bulk. Also Europe is just 1hr sailing away
As Kama'aina I can tell you this was spot on. Thank you. This is why your channel rocks. Mahalo for spreading the news. If you need any other answers, feel free to reach out. We're resilient because we live with Aloha 🤙🏽
@@AL-lh2ht They could make it less expensive if they repealed the Jones act, there is getting around our poor laws that make things unnecessarily difficult for our island citizens
This is a huge huge problem in northern Canada. Almost the same situation with a different but very interesting and important story that would be amazing to see in a video
Unfortunately the North has no seaports and no highways connected major cities and it would cost a lot build this type of infrastructure in sucha harsh climate
Prices are normal in Yellowknife, Yukon which sits next to the highway that connects the mainland US to Alaska and Churchill, Manitoba which has a rail connection. Northern logistics can be fixed if the Government spent money on building highways and railroads to Northern towns and villages.
16:15 The best thing I've seen on RUclips in a long time is "A Man of the Sandwich." Truly a man who knows what he's about. Even if it's referencing a place, I know what it really means.
In case people don't know "A Man of the Sandwich Islands", now known as Hawai'i. The reason why the South Sandwich Islands (near Antarctica) have south in their name.
Great content; however, I'm noticing that a number of your recent videos have music that is out of place (doesn't match the tone or energy of what is being discussed in the voice over). The music has become distracting, and it seems like little effort is being made to appropriately match music tracks to each section of voiceover.
yeah, there is also allot of "you should feel positive about this point" and "you should feel negative about this point" music going on. Its manipulative, and totally unneeded the content speaks for itself without it.
French Polynesia is a comparable, even more distant logistic challenge, with principal exchanges with the French mainland. Volumes are much lower tho but it's still incredible how we can supply islands so far away
I have friend who vacation in Hawaii (from California) every year, but this year they went to French Polynesia and they confirmed that prices there were way higher than Hawaii
I've been to Christmas Island (part of Australia) and there you have the same issue. A small population, far away from the mainland means that prices are very high, especially for perishables which have to be flown in, as cargo ships only arrive every few weeks (it's in fact a ship getting the phospate they mine there and it brings containers over), if they can offload as they don't really have a secluded harbour. And with 5 flights per week and quite small planes, even that has to be subsidized to actually work. And they have some sort of netting to actually place cargo in the main seating area.
Excited for this video. I became a farmer 10 years ago because we are so isolated in Hawai'i. The ease and convenience of modern supply chains made people forget that we are in fact living on an island.
Farming is difficult because of the soil though, right? It seems like Hawaii’s population just far exceeds what the land is capable of sustaining naturally. I wonder, if tourism wasn’t a thing, could the islands sustain the actual residents? I’d guess there would also be way less actual residents too because so many jobs are there because of tourism.
@@conor7154 The soil is prime for agriculture, the bigger issue for farmers are the cost of land and water availability. The potential to feed Hawaii's population is there. One study deduced that 1 million metric tons of food was being produced on ~250,000 acres in pre-contact times (you can Google "natalie kurashima hawaii" to find that). The last study estimated Hawai'i consumes 1.14 million metric tons per year, so not terribly far off? Yes, tourists are another factor, with about 10 million people visiting annually, but I don't think we need to worry about feeding them, because I don't even think we should be striving to be 100% self sufficient. Hawaiian mythology is full of stories of famine, drought, and killing chiefs for poor land management practices. They were totally self sufficient, but also totally susceptible to natural disasters. Growing more food doesn't mean cutting off the life line to the rest of the world.
@@conor7154wendover described it pretty well, we really have no incentive for hawaii to be a "money making" state apart from the fact that tourism drives almost all of the economy of the islands, and anyone not in tourism business is usually just able to sustain because of government / high paying company work, which is what the main housing market here targets if you are trying to live near the main cities everyone else usually from here lives local on the outer islands like maui where local farming and work might be more productive or further northwest oahu
big island is also largely small spread out communities as well, but the issue there for the companies and grocery stores is that most people live sooo far apart that both the tourism and sticking around for the low far apart population isnt profitable, so there is a lot more incentive for local businesses there and outside of areas like Hilo
@@conor7154 Hawaii needs to open up the other islands other than Oahu. The other islands are just about empty. One of the reasons is due to private land ownership. We are talking about one person/family who owns 100k acres like on Kauai etc. Larry Ellison owns 98% of the entire island of Lanai.
You forgot to mention that Hawaiian islands are not on the great circle route between USA and other places on earth. So regardless of other limitations, every shipper will have to spend the same amount of time/ energy/ fuel to move a container. PS - great circle route is the shortest path between two points on the surface of a sphere, such as the Earth.
4:50 Completely wrong speculation. The distance between Long Beach, CA, and Shanghai, China, is 5,708nm and takes ~15.9 days at 15kts. The distance between Long Beach and Honolulu is 2,231nm (6.2 days @ 15kt) and Honolulu to Shanghai is 4,572nm (12.75 days) for a total distance of 6,803nm and ~19 days - plus the dwell time in Honolulu (1-2 days?). A shipping company is not going to add 1,100nm to a journey and two to four days for the paltry revenue brought in at Honolulu. Consider that 3 days steaming at 15kts for a ultralarge containership si on the order of 300 tons of fuel at $500-700/ton. That's $180,000 in extra fuel costs, alone, not to mention the other expenses--like the need to buy another ship to fill the gap in the lengthened schedule. Note also that the Pasha ship you show at 5:03, and Matson's new Kanaloa ships are CONRO ships that can take both containerized and roll-on/roll-off cargo. CONRO ships wouldn't be competitive in the Shanghai-Long Beach route, but are useful in the Jones Act trade so people can move cars, trucks, and equipment.
Are they though? Or are they just reflecting the ridiculousness of living in a very isolated place with the same conveniences as in much more central places?
The discrepancy in income of mainland France vs French Guiana is insane though. GDP per capita of Guiana is 16k Euros while it's 60k Euros for mainland France.
Fun fact: protectionism has also lead to US ship *building* industry being weak, because what they have is basically targeted towards military vessels (because there's also rules about military vessels *only* being allowed to be built domestically). There's now talks about co-operating with e.g. Finland after we joined NATO, because we know how to build ice breakers. Another fun fact: "a millennia" is wrong, because "millennia" is a plural form. "A millennium" is correct.
Military vessels on the calibre of the united states, especially given the kind of technology integrated, should certainly be only built domestically. Nobody has anything on the highest end US capabilities
@@namm0x326 The Hanwha Ocean shipyard in South Korea was recently awarded a contract for a ship maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) contract from the U.S. Navy back in August 2024. We've been losing our edge with shipbuilding while our competition has caught up more and more, and that is a big issue.
You fundamentally don't understand. US wages and cost across the board are higher. Explain to me why a shipbuilder would build in the US without a law requiring it.
There's another kind of supply chain isolation that doesn't have anything to do with distance: population I live in an area that's very small, so even though we're literally next door to the farms a lot of the products originate from, the corporations don't consider us WORTH shipping the good produce and perishables to, so we get the shit at the end of the line
@@TheWolfXCIXif you just so happed to be passing buy, and the farmer just so happened to be free, you might save a few bucks. Otherwise the cost of going to the different individual producers for a few onions or potatoes makes it unfeasible.
It’s not that they don’t consider it, it’s that you aren’t. They’re not going to just operate on a loss or massively complicate their operation for less than their minimum margin target. There of plenty of places like that so governments usually subsidize the companies and hope people move inland.
A large part of why Hawaiian domestic agriculture died down was because the mainland could produce things cheaper. Most notably meat. That's why all of polynesia is incredibly into canned meat that could be more easily shipped from afar.
Before pineapples and sugar, Hawaii exported a lot of potatoes to the West Coast. I guess there's no way that could happen now, with such established potato farms in the Northwest.
It's interesting to see how many of the issues you raised resonate with our experience in the French Caribbean, despite its close integration with France. Food prices are often 30-40% higher, as much of it is imported from mainland France. Supermarket chains, typically owned by the descendants of former slave owners, control the entire importation process, allowing them to impose exorbitant margins. Meanwhile, much of our agricultural land remains tied to sugarcane and banana production for export to Europe. It’s absurd that bananas grown locally can end up being more expensive on the island than in Europe, where they are exported. These systems, rooted in colonization, were established to benefit the colonizing countries-France in our case, much like the U.S. in Hawaii-at the expense of the local population.
Now ... let's talk about pricing in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon, in Canada ... where 24 bottles of Nestle water skyrockets sometimes to CA$74. Where milk is CA$10 for 2L.
All the same problems but worse - very long distances (and without the scale that cargo ships provides), and chunks of the years where there may be no road at all to get there. (Used to plan trucks for food deliveries; there's a river that during ice breakup you have to helicopter the product across at a buck a pound - and that's in addition to the rest of the trip.)
@@Tuppoo94 neither really, Inuit communities are some of the most affected by food insecurity than southerners. they pay you less if youre native and want a job to support yourself or your family and most households are unable to meet the recommended nutritional requirement due to high food costs and restrictions to access traditional food sources like fish marine mammals and land animals. they were also hit the worst by RSV because of medical apartheid and tylenol shortages and children and babies couldnt receive the care they needed. welfare isnt great either, the federal government expects you to live off of what is basically breadcrumbs(i personally experience this with disability welfare since im unable to work, it doesnt even last for two weeks after being paid out) and magically not end up homeless. food deserts exist up here too as major grocers only exist in the more ʼmetropolitanʼ areas(like Iqaluit as an example) and dont really service smaller remote hamlets and villages. its fokked no matter which way you look at it
I remember watching a RUclips video about grocery prices in Nome Alaska a few years ago showing prices for various items, one of the products was bottled water. I do not remember what the selling price was, however it was very outrageous. The thought I had was why would someone in Nome purchase water bottled probably in the lower 48.
I’ve lived in Hawaii most my life with the exception of middle school on Camp Pendleton. Everything here is apparently expensive, in comparison to what ya’ll pay. I’m sure there’s exceptions but it really annoys me that we aren’t self reliant. With all the money from tourism, you’d think we’d have better infrastructure or public transportation but instead we get classier hotels and land in the 80-100k range. There isn’t a lot of hope for people in my generation to get a home and it really sucks. I will say, the Hilo hospital is getting a massive upgrade and a lot of the roads are getting repaved but energy and food production really need to be moved to priority 1
I worked in construction. Would it surprise you to know that the State DOT's (Dept of Transportation, the guys who take care of and administer the State roadways) idea of road maintenance was to only patch pot holes and only when the roadway was very very bad, to repave it? Well it was. Only in the last several years have they shifted to a maintenance program, so if you look at H1 near UH and see the sealed roadway?...........well that's when it started. Before then, did anyone ever see seam sealer on AC roadways? Nope.
@@TeeRollss it makes sense when there's a lot of roads and so little workers but just goes to show how tax payers money was being spent. I live on the Big Island and never visited the other islands that much. I had to see a specialist for both my hand surgery and kidney stones (every single specialist in Hawaii is on Oahu...) and damn it's night and day compared to Big Island. Ya'll have actuall overpasses, trains that apparently dont get used very much, I mean the whole 9 yards.
Fun thing with the San Diego to SLC to Missoula supply chain mentioned: the Albertsons DC is just far enough north that a single truck can tow two 48 foot trailers to Missoula in a single shift, spend the night, then return the next day. One driver can move 6 truckloads from SLC to Missoula every week!
FYI at 13:38 you describe the location as the Maui Paradise Condo. That is a single rental unit within the building. The building is actually the Menehune Shores Condominium.
Another problem with the Jones Act and shipping, is the US lacks shipyards that can't actually build modern cargo ships, and are on the whole, about 20-25 years behind the rest of the world in technology. This has also been a problem with building wind farms, and modern harbors. The US lacks the skills to build any of these vessels.
@@NONO-hz4vo This is the issue. Most other nations with large merchant marines have invested the necessary resources. The US government, for whatever reason, refuses to do so, even though there would be significant benefits in both the military and commercial sectors.
22:38 Part of being a state within the United States means the ability to rely upon other states. We don't expect each of the other 49 states to be self-reliant, so why should we expect it of Hawaii? This is not to say single-points of failure, like the Honolulu Harbor, shouldn't be resolved.
@@doujinflip All legitimate points. But the ideal solution to a disaster won't be local farms. It would be pre-staged warehouses filled with non-perishable supplies and foods, regardless of origin. My overall point is that unless the Kingdom of Hawaii is restored, the goal of having this island chain be self-reliant needs to be critically evaluated - not just presumed valid on its own.
2 месяца назад+18
Why is the background music so loud? Love your informational videos.
I really would love that you make some videos about the non-State territories of the USA that we know so little about. Guam, Northern Mariana, US Samoa, US Virgins Islands, Puerto Rico ❤️
@@Maxime_K-G Wait till you find out about all the stores that do military discounts all across the country. Insane class discrimination, why should they get a discount just because they are military?
As someone who was born and raised in Hawaii I want to thank you so much for making a video like this. It's important to spread the knowledge that you shared along with raising awareness of a state that isn't all "paradise". 🤙🏽
The Hilo farmers market is one of my favorite spots in the world. I think it's possible to survive entirely on food grown on the Big Island today without even spending as much as you would on imported foods.
@@iankrasnow5383I live in the Big Island and we make it a point to spend 75 percent of our food dollars locally. Most of our meat, fish, milk, vegetables and fruits are local. We substitute things like potatoes with local foods like 'ulu. We even buy local chocolate and coffee and many spices. I do have a weakness for good cheese and wine, though, so Costco runs still happen. But we don't NEED those things.
I lived in honolulu til 2020, and I was paying less for groceries in 2019 there, than I am in Virginia in 2024. That said, I left because of financial infeasibility. Cost of living isn't as ridiculous as some people claim, but the real disparity is that income levels and job opportunities are worse than the mainland, while having cost of living similar to NYC or SF.
Bull crap. If you look at our prices now in 2024 I'll bet you our cost of living is higher than yours. That's what 4 years of Biden-nomics does. Another example of cost of living down here...........for many hurricane insurance is mandatory (if you have a mortgage), luckily for me it's not. This year my insurance which was about $3,000 per year for the past nearly 20 years jumped to $6,300 per year. I did not renew my insurance. This is in spite of the fact that Hawaii hasn't had to pay out a hurricane claim since Iniki nearly 30 years ago.
I spent three weeks in Honolulu for an internship back in 2023 and people didn't believe me until I took pictures of the food (even at the Pearl Harbor Navy Commissary) that was 2-3 times more expensive than back home. Milk was roughly $8-9 depending on percentage. 12 pack of Sprite was $15. 1 regular size normal AriZona Ice Tea - $3. Frozen TV dinners were $5-6 each. Loaf of bread was $5. Normal night out for a burger and fries - $25 before taxes and tip. Only note I'll correct you on is that beef is mostly not shipped in from the mainland, on the North side of Oahu there are TONS of cattle ranches (Kauloa Ranch is where A LOT of movies are filmed too). Most of that is the state artificially placing a price floor to subsidize smaller ranches and farms in Hawai'i. Pineapples were the only cheap perishables obviously.
Those bananas have been ripened with ethylene gas. They don’t just arrive from Ecuador and start turning yellow. It’s a five day process heating the bananas to 63.5 degrees F and then backing off the temperature over the next five days until they are ready to send to store.
21:20 quite sure that's Tenerife. A place with pretty much the same problems, maybe to convey the point of not being unique at the end of the video and not a mistake since the landscape is also similar
It is Tenerife :) it shows Los Cristianos and Las Americas. We have similar problemas indeed, but not at the same scale. Canary islands are less than a day by ship to mainland Spain, so food is more expensive but not as crazy as I saw in the video. Issue with an economy fuel by low salary industries like Hotels etc and huge housing price due to people from outside purchasing is a similar problem. It is very sad :(
@@voorachter2733 What in the hell are you talking about? Have you never heard about Hawaii's chicken issues? Kauai is infested with escaped chickens. No one is feeding them, but there are hordes of them.
@@voorachter2733 That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying Hawaii is geographically isolated, has a small population (relatively speaking) and suffers from economies of scale. I stated earlier that it is cheaper to ship eggs from the mainland, not that Hawaii couldn't produce that amount of feed for chickens. Hawaii was one of the largest single suppliers for pineapples and sugar cane so we can easily produce feed. It is cheaper to ship eggs from the mainland.
The next will be back in Japan as we could see by the teaser at the end of the last Tag Across Europe season, but maybe the one after that. I guess that would be in the likes of the New Zealand season and the boys from the Trash Taste podcast also did a challenge run across Hawaii, akin to Jet Lag
1:23 Those cans are different than the mainland. The machines to make them were imported awhile ago and the material savings to change them out just isn't there.
Excellent report. I went there in 2022 for 15-days and visited 3 islands. I was amazed at the prices there and was aware that almost everything was imported.
Basically every non tropical fruit including bananas is imported, as they just don't grow there, they're invasive, or something else on the islands destroys the plants
This is an amazingly accurate portrayal of the challenges faced here in Hawaii. It's extremely fragile and can easily fail given the right circumstance or threat.
Te Jones Act is guarantees shipping to Hawaii. If it is eliminated shipping to Hawaii will only be done as long as it's profitable. There will be no control over price or guarantee of service.
It took me by surprise how some things simply weren't available, and prices were sky-high for many things. I did guess why (eventually!), but this is a very interesting video
My favorite grocery store in Hawaii is Don Quijote. Coming from Seattle most of the Asian and Hawaiian goods are like half the price as where I'm from, like Portuguese sausage and noodles 🤤
A gallon of milk is routinely $5.99 at Safeway and $5.97 at Walmart. There have been price spikes in the past due to supply shortages that also affected other states. It can be $7+ in other stores but I don't see $10 as mentioned in this vid.
13:43 I stayed in an air bnb in this building back in 2022. At that time, the units for sale in that building (2bed 2bath) were selling for like $1.4m/unit
What upsets me the most is that, when there are local foods/produce in stores, it is often more expensive than goods from the Continent!! Wth?!? As a Native Hawaiian, I want to buy goods produce from our 'aina (land), but in all reality, to make my money stretch the farthest, I often cannot do this. It breaks my heart when, due to necessity, I have to choose mainland goods over local ones. 💔
We need to replace the Jones Act with a subsidy for US-built and US-flagged ships. Take 1% of the defense budget and that'd probably be enough to massively expand ships and shipbuilding capacity in case of a war while also making shipping cheaper within the US, provided it was smartly applied ($ per ship would make them churn out of a ton of bad tiny ships, maybe a certain number of $ per ton transported?)
We used to have the Jones Act and the Construction Differential Subsidy and Operation Differential Subsidy systems. When the subsidies went away, so did the majority of the US shipbuilding industry and US flag ships. We need to stop extending US Navy protection to the open-registry Flags of Convenience. All those Houthi missiles and drones the USN shot down? Not our problem. 1% of the defense budget would be a good start. A better start would be 1% of what we spend on entitlement programs. We used to have an organization that managed the US subsidy programs. The US Maritime Administration (and its predecessor, the US Maritime Commission). Oh, hey, MARAD still exists, but hasn't been doing anything useful for the last decade or so. We should make them start working for a living, again.
3:01 - Fun Fact, this law killed the American cruise and coastal ferry industry. Simply put: the US simply did not and does not have enough American civilian sailors to operate businesses in those industries. So those businesses died; the law had the opposite effect for certain maritime industries; and this is why, while its still uncommon, you can find coastal ferry services in other countries to other countries, but not the USA to anywhere, not even other US ports. Before the law you could catch a coastal ferry to just about any other US port, and to a number of different countries in the Caribbean as well; likewise there was a thriving American centered cruise industry. In effect, the Jones Act has far reaching consequences and they are generally all very negative for American maritime industries.
The fact you even still have a merchant marine is important. In countries like Australia and New Zealand we have none. We are island nations completely dependent upon foreign ships with foreign crew who are paid by foreign owners.
Last time I was there at the Walmart near the Ala Moana Center which is a mile or two from Waikiki, they keep the Spam locked down in a clear plastic container, available by request only.
I just saw gochujang flavored Spam at Maui's Costco. Didn't buy...not enough gochujang flavor for my taste. I'll just slather it on from the jars of gochujang that are made in Korea shipped to Long Beach then shipped to Honolulu before being barged to Kahului. Aigu. What a Koyaanisqatsi way of life we humans have built.
Thank you for highlighting this. I live on the Big Island and the situation with Young Brothers is scary. During Covid you would go to the grocery store and whole shelves would be empty because of shipping from Oahu not coming as often.
I’d love to see something on the logistics of Alaska! As a local, I know some of these problems are mirrored here but there’s also some key differences. Would be a great video!
Really great video. I learned a lot from this one, particularly about historic food sovereignty in Hawaii. I'd love if you did a video about similar food-supply-chain-based logistics challenges in northern Canada. Those Hawaii prices are downright tame compared to what's being charged in some remote, northern, and indigenous communities.
There's a really small, VERY old Pasha container ship that operates out of the Port of Los Angeles (or at least it used to). The Horizon Spirit was built in 1980 and carries just 2437 TEUs. Compared with a more modern container ship meeting (original) Panamax standards which can carry up to 4500 TEUs or the infamous Ever Given which has a capacity of a whopping 20,124 TEUs.
@@IFRYRCEthe alternative would be reliance on foreign built, crewed shipping. We are already too reliant on China. They put data gathering and kill switch technology in their terminal cranes. They could shut down a great amount of our infrastructure as it is.
@@IFRYRCE Actually, I am in favor of reform and creating a new Merchant Marine act that would replace the 1920 act. What I am not in favor of is merely repealing the act and thinking foreign shipping is the solution. I think you see from the video that the Hawaii trade requires small, fast, and dedicated ships and this not something that most foreign shippers care about, unless you pay them premium...which is the argument against the Jones Act. Also, military cargo has to go on US flagged vessels and that makes up a good chunk of the cargo Matson and Pasha ships, so you will still need US flag ships for the trade.
@@wgowshipping Good job on the RNZN Manawanui video the other day. NZ allows almost unrestricted foreign shipping and it has left us with, I believe, only a single coastal ship left. I agree that totally unrestricted is not the best alternative to the Jones Act.
Calves are shipped to the mainland, fed, slaughtered, and shipped back to Hawai'i. That's why "local" beef is more expensive. Nobody wants a slaughterhouse here.
As a resident, I can tell you've done your homework. Good job! Even the pronunciation was good. I'm less optimistic about raising our own food. For one, we'd have to eat what we can raise. But the average diet is closer to US than traditional Hawaiian. The other problem is workers. Back in the plantation days, they brought in immigrants from Japan, China, and Philippines. Most pushed their kids into higher education, so if they ever worked on the farm it would be accountant or manager, not field worker. There's "Help Wanted" signs all over for fast food and other low-end jobs. I don't know as we'd ever get the workers needed to raise our own food.
The labor force for diversified agriculture is now from Mexico (in the 00's on Maui) and south east asia now (think Aloon Farms up by Costco in central Oahu).
The video author also says in a free market, jones act ships wouldn't exist. A free market isn't better if Americans would have to be treated like 3rd world country workers.
The Jones act also applies to the 5 million or so residents of the US territories. It pretty much chokes the economy of those places, crippling the economy by making exports too expensive. The unintended result is that industry is almost impossible, jobs are scarce, the those territories are sunk into endless poverty. It should be exchanged by a system that affects all states equally.
Infrastructure at the Port of Honolulu is vulnerable to only two forces, tsunami and hurricanes? Don't forget what happened less than 3 miles west at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. China would likely target the Port of Honolulu in the first hours of WWIII, with the goal being to cripple the US Pacific Fleet, though destroying civilian logistical infrastructure would be a bonus.
It's not about reestablishing the very same system, but to learn from it for solutions beyond what is utilized so far, mitigating risks. Food sovereignty won't happen that way, especially with a focus on cash crops.
I’ve lived in Hawaii since the late ‘80s and although I was familiar with a lot of what you discussed, I certainly learned a lot, too. One thing that I don’t believe you mentioned is that jobs in Hawaii often pay less than comparable jobs on the Mainland (as we refer to the Continental United States). This has often been called “The Paradise Tax”, as in you’ve got to pay to live in paradise. This issue was somewhat alleviated by the Coronavirus Pandemic as many local workers were able to get remote jobs doing the work they had been doing here but at Mainland pay rates. I work in the tech sector and I went to a vendor event soon after restrictions on gatherings were lifted. One of my table mates worked IT for a major healthcare provider. She told me that pre-Pandemic, they were able to offer new hires less money on the basis of residing here (often near family) but that had changed since Mainland companies were offering them far more money for remote work.
I can't concentrate on Sam's voice because the music is so generic and overly clipped to the point where it starts making weird noises, like the weird distortion sounding like someone breathing at 20:32. Just hire me to fix this stuff already, Sam
I agree with much of want is said here. However at 12:15 an image is shown of a container ship with cranes that is able to self load and unload. It is docked at a location with no shore based cranes. These are not as fast as shore based container cranes but they do the job.
I lived on Maui for 4 years, starting right when sugar production stopped. To see the islands and their people slowly begin to reclaim their independence against powerful economic and political forces designed to benefit others has inspired both awe and hope in me. This video reflects those feelings I have while neatly summarizing the practicalities and history of the situation. Wendover at its best.
One thing not mentioned about the high cost of shipping to Hawaii is that in former times, Matson shipped a lot of sugar and pineapple to the mainland. Since the decline of both industries, their ships travel to the mainland mostly empty. Consequently, Matson has to add the cost of sending the ships back to the mainland to the price of shipping goods to Hawaii. So effectively, consumers must pay for two-way shipping for everything that comes in. 😔
Complaining about the Jones Act making shipping expensive is like complaining emancipation of the slaves made cotton expensive. Correct, it makes things more expensive. Worth it for not using slave labor in both cases.
Actually, cotton became significantly cheaper after emancipation because mechanization replaced human labor and quickly became exponentially more productive.
@@wallyballou7417 that's not remotely the point. The point is it's ALWAYS worth it to pay more to not use slaves, or the modern equivalent. And it is a good thing to legislate away use of them even if it costs more.
@@z987k It’s exactly the point. The Jones act makes building and operating US ships uncompetitive. That’s why there is no US shipping industry. Protectionism NEVER works. It just makes things more expensive, shelters inefficient and outmoded people and processes from necessary change, and lines the pockets of the politically connected.
I work in Hawaii for both aviation and food logistics companies and I am really glad that you are bringing to light the challenges we face. Thank you!
Why is no one still talking about his failed roller coaster video??
@@willtheprodigy3819 Failed? I thought the video was great
@@Mrazgoodaz that video was donkey dik
@@willtheprodigy3819 Dude why are you obsessed with this? What's wrong with you?
Yeah, well, beggars can’t be choosers of course, so mahalo to him. But a bit more research would have made it much more truthful and useful.
The jones act is a really interesting problem here in Alaska too. As a commercial fisherman I have to have an American made and flagged boat, even at 22’. It’s even the main reason all Alaskan cruises start in Vancouver Canada. So they can staff with cheap labor and Panamanian flagged ships.
dont let trump let you speak like that, he hates non americans, probably as much as they hate him. you would have though he would be happy more folks to buy his crappy watches🤣
And this is also why Alaska cruises from Seattle stop in Victoria BC.
Why is no one still talking about his failed roller coaster video??
Panamanian and Liberian Flags are an American inventions
The Jones Act exists because of Seattle, The fought to exclude Vancouver from the Alaska Trade. Irony bites.
I was born and raised on Maui and even though I knew everything was more expensive and logistics were complicated I never really put much thought into it. Watching this video I realized I only ever saw Matson, Young Brothers, and Pasha Hawaii shipping containers when I’d pass Kahului Harbor. As always it’s another super interesting video from Wendover that I personally appreciated so keep it up.
I want to live there, but am afraid of being called a “colonizer.”
@@willtheprodigy3819 If you live on Oahu and act respectful of living there you won't be treated like that, and avoid areas like Waianae living wise where Native Hawaiians live without any issues. I live here now, White, and I've had no issues. Just respect people and don't act entitled.
@@willtheprodigy3819 US mainlander of Euro ancestry here... I lived on Maui from 2015-2019... I found the people of Hawaii to be very welcoming and accepting, *IF* you take the time to learn the local culture, respect it, and to some extent adopt it. Read up, and listen more than you speak, is my top advice. It also helps if you work in a job that directly benefits local people (medical caregiver > timeshare salesperson, for example).
Follow the monopoly to find the money and the lobbyists who profit from these laws
@@bhzucker What about a teacher? 🤔
Sorry, but if the Port of Honolulu gets wiped out by a tsunami or hurricane, it's a near certainty that both Honolulu International Airport AND Pearl Harbor would be in just as bad shape. The airport is barely over one mile away, and at the same elevation. The entrance to Pearl Harbor is less than six miles from the entrance to Honolulu harbor.
Neither is a viable backup plan for a true natural disaster.
But surely America wouldn't just let it's own territory just rot after a natural disaster right? Right?
Wheeler Army Airfield has a massive landing strip at 500ft elevation, that can be used as a back up, while repairs are underway… it’s unwise to think that the plan to procure islands for their strategic location and military necessity had no underlying contingency planning…
@@igorpshenichnikov519 That would still be no way near enugh to supply the whole island chain, a single Runway will not do mutch diffrence if something happens (especially if you consider like medivac and the importand transports of disaster relive that will have to land/start there too).
Doesn’t matter which Hawaiian ports gets destroyed. Whatever happens to California will affect Hawaiians for 80-90 percent of what Hawaii needs is imported. Shoyu, furkake and all that
@@igorpshenichnikov519 things have changed quite a bit since they acquired those islands it's unwise to assume competence in your leaders
Hawaii used to be self-sufficent in milk. In the early 1980s the dairy farm industry collapsed in scandal. The cows were found to be fed byproducts of the fruit farming industry (pineapple rinds etc) that were sprayed with pesticides in the field... and it was detected in the cow's milk. Now all milk and other dairy products are flown in from the US west coast.
I'm from Canada in a very rural county; the lowest population county (13K) in my province. At the turn of the millennium, there were over a dozen commercial dairy farms here, now there are only three. Which is still more than all the milking farms in the entire states of Alaska and Hawaii put together (pop. 2.2M). And in size even the smallest of the three milks more cows than the AK & HI farms combined.
What's a little Heptachlor between neighbors?
So now you get a cocktail of growth hormones and anti-biotics instead. Not a great trade-off, if you ask me
Geez sure doesnt stink of us interference in how suddenly a critical self sufficient industry managed to collapse and was remedied by wholly relying on the country that has made you a colonial vassal.
In Lahaina in 1970, and if you were out of milk by mid-afternoon on Friday, you would not have milk again until Monday afternoon. The milk was locally produced, so I imagine it was like that for the entire weekends. Pretty sure the cows were still producing milk on weekends, but evidently the delivery drivers weren't working.
RIP Lani Moo :(
When I moved from Oahu to Maui in 2021 due to young brothers monopoly, it was actually faster and cheaper to ship my vehicle to Long Beach from Oahu and then turn right back around and ship it from Long Beach to Maui insane! Matson did it in three weeks for around $1900. Young brothers was quoting me $2500 and 2 months.
Why would it take two months to ship it?
@@jk484 finding a spot on a ship can be tough. You have to consider that most folks shipping things don't wait until they're manufacturered to organize shipping. They're organizing far in advance to keep things rolling smoothly, moving their products.
At least that's how it works in most cases, I'm not sure if that's accurate in this very specific case.
Basically shipping for next week was booked 3 months ago.
@@jk484 Wild guess is they were going to wait till they could fill up an entire barge. You'd think there would be some kind of market for ocean going ferry service between the islands.
Shit like this is how current economic systems reinforce environmental damage. It's always cheaper to not destroy the environment, but subsidies and enforced monopolies allow some to externalize that cost onto the rest of us. Another great example is in healthcare. The healthcare system absorbs the costs of pollution more than anything else - but is also allowed to push that cost onto people directly. Oh! And trucking on paved roads! The damage a truck does to the road is like 1000x what the average personal vehicle does, but they only pay 10x what an individual has to pay for using a vehicle. In other words, every payment you make in fuel and registration is going straight to the pockets of trucking companies. Neat, huh?
I thought you guys had tunnels or ferries connecting all the islands. Huh.
The comment at 4:51 is a non sequitur. Ships sailing from Asia to the west coast of the United States follow a Great Circle route and actually go near Alaska and through the Aleutian Islands; so Hawaii would be a substantial diversion.
Also, most of the ships on the Asia-North America run are too big to be accommodated into the Sand Island Terminal in Hawaii. They draw too much water and the container cranes in Hawaii are geared for ships much smaller - 2 to 3K TEUs vice 8 to 12k TEUs.
Dude, it's the internet. You are providing too much relevant and accurate information 😂
@@Shadow__133 no that's just a flippant response to a good comment
some may still find it worth it to divert in that direction with cargo, though
Topic driven RUclipsrs aren't known for their in-depth research on the topics they cover. It's infortainment, not expert analysis. They spend X number of hours and put out a video.
Hadn't expected to see Sal in the comments but... probalby should have. Thanks for the clarification
Fun fact: when disasters hit Hawaii, we do not have the luxury of evacuating. There are simply not planes to get us out. As a kid, it was wild to me. That mainlanders can just leave instead of battening down and preparing for a long haul.
So remember, when hearing about the weaknesses in our supply chain, remember that what is citizens are one bad hurricane away from being stranded in a destroyed city with dwindling food and no way out.
Well knowing that reality I'm sure you and the systems that govern you have made provisions to ensure stability after a major storm. Right?
@@Praisethesunson We can't even properly help the Carolina's which are in our backyard with a fraction of the affected population.
@emily Yup, if the government wanted to save Hawaii after getting hit it would require one of the largest sealift and airlift operations in history. 1.44 million folks. Though, from a layman's perspective as long as fresh water supplies could be maintained locally, actual deaths would be minimal if assistance was not delayed.
@@Flight042 the good news is that our water systems are pretty good! The bad news is that if food imports are cut off, most estimates say we have a week until we run out of food. So better get those ports open in a week or two!
So you would let lava burn you alive instead of moving to the otherside of the island? 🤣🤣
I mean that's what is in midwest do for tornados is just bunker down and ride it out, one storms come up to fast wouldn't be enough time to drive move away anyway
I work at Lowes in Kahului Maui and I deal supply chain annoyances every day. I work in the appliance department and if you want an appliance we don’t have in stock (which happens often, as we are the busiest appliance retailer on Island, we sell stuff faster than we can get it in) it takes us at least a month to get it in, an because of how many stops the appliances have they often come in damaged, and then we have to reorder them and wait an additional month to get stuff in.
Why doesn’t Hawaii import more from china or Canada
@@ahadumer418 Unprofitable. Remember cargo, especially sealift operate on volume. While Hawaii has 1.44 million souls, LA alone has 3.822 million. The local economy just can't justify foreign cargo ships making the stop with the Jones act.
If that's the case, is appliance and electronics repair a significant business on the island?
Can I come get some of the dented kine stuff lol?
@@kyotra no. It’s difficult to get repairs on island. As far as I know Lake Appliance repair is pretty much the only company on island that can fix all brands. I recommend them to all my customers because all the other appliance companies aren’t in business anymore here. If anyone here knows another in Maui please do tell.
On the island of Hawaii (the Big Island), there are enough small farms today that nearly every community has a farmers' market that's open every day, and the rest have markets open at least 1 or 2 days a week. Local produce is available usually at a lower cost than at supermarkets, and always at a much higher quality. Still, not everyone uses those markets regularly, so I'm not sure whether they could feed the island's entire population at current levels. Also, the Big Island is as big as the rest of the islands combined, and only has a small fraction of the population of Honolulu. Its population is lower today than it was before Captain Cook. Clearly, even there, they're making less efficient use of the land for producing food than it was in the past, but they do have more land per person. It also has some areas with a significantly lower cost of living, mainly because the risk of volcano damage is so high that the grid doesn't even extend everywhere and you can't buy home insurance.
Native Hawaiian populations pre contact estimate between 200,000- 1 million persons. They continued to grow and thrive until Captain Cook arrived along with other colonizers.
The main problem is see on the BigIsland now is that a lot of the land that is actually suitable for farming (like: it has dirt on it) is too expensive to farm and has turned into up to 10 acre lawns of ultra-rich people unless they bought it years ago.
@@marenpurves4493 there is a good amount of farmable land on the big island, but due to leftovers from the sugar cane industry (and an exceedingly poor investment into eucalyptus trees), a lot of the dirt in those areas needs to be completely rebuilt. There aren't too many landowners who have massive portions of the island restricting farming, but the south side of the island has very little soil so you're definitely not wrong. It could absolutely be done with time and (a lot of) money though.
@@9871ish Oh, absolutely. The eucalyptus trees don't bother me half as much as the acres of lawns that may have a few sheep or cattle to keep them mowed on them just north of Hilo where houses are on the market for millions of dollars.
@@marenpurves4493 they are less of an eyesore for sure, but most eucalyptus trees literally make the soil poisonous for other plants which has made that section of Hamakua impossible to farm until the soil is restored.
But you're totally right, there are plenty of 5-15 acre parcels with an overpriced, oversized house and a manicured lawn. So wasteful
The logistical problem with islands is that most are surrounded by water.
I'm mindblown 🤯
Big water, ocean water
Could be worse, at least a ship can usually move in a straight line, instead of being limited to winding roads. It´s also usually more cost effective per container than trucks or planes.
I wonder if the UK has the same issues as Hawaï
@@cyriliolarger land mass, more agriculture to feed themselves and more people so being able to transport in bulk. Also Europe is just 1hr sailing away
As Kama'aina I can tell you this was spot on. Thank you. This is why your channel rocks. Mahalo for spreading the news. If you need any other answers, feel free to reach out. We're resilient because we live with Aloha 🤙🏽
Puerto Rico also bound by the Jones Act. It makes life on the island extremely expensive.
no, its the government. They could easily fix the electric system, they could fix the crime, they could fix the housing, but they don't want to.
@@davidanalyst671 no, it's the Jones Act that makes stuff expensive in PR. Stop with the lies.
living on a island is expensive, no getting around that.
I'm Puerto Rican, I agree. It makes life hard here.
@@AL-lh2ht They could make it less expensive if they repealed the Jones act, there is getting around our poor laws that make things unnecessarily difficult for our island citizens
This is a huge huge problem in northern Canada. Almost the same situation with a different but very interesting and important story that would be amazing to see in a video
That’s because you guys don’t have roads to your cities because the liberals won’t make new highways
Northern Store prices are insane. .
Unfortunately the North has no seaports and no highways connected major cities and it would cost a lot build this type of infrastructure in sucha harsh climate
Prices are normal in Yellowknife, Yukon which sits next to the highway that connects the mainland US to Alaska and Churchill, Manitoba which has a rail connection. Northern logistics can be fixed if the Government spent money on building highways and railroads to Northern towns and villages.
@@JollyOldCanuckHay River is where the nearest rail line to Yellowknife is.
16:15 The best thing I've seen on RUclips in a long time is "A Man of the Sandwich." Truly a man who knows what he's about. Even if it's referencing a place, I know what it really means.
In case people don't know "A Man of the Sandwich Islands", now known as Hawai'i. The reason why the South Sandwich Islands (near Antarctica) have south in their name.
As someone born and raised in Hawaii, you did an amazing job depicting our reality, while cutting through historical biases. Great job and thank you!
Great content; however, I'm noticing that a number of your recent videos have music that is out of place (doesn't match the tone or energy of what is being discussed in the voice over). The music has become distracting, and it seems like little effort is being made to appropriately match music tracks to each section of voiceover.
And way way to loud
Hard balance to strike. But yeah the current youtube 'format' is getting tiresome. The format of these informative type of vids needs to evolve a bit.
Dude, turn the background music down in the mix. It sounds like your speaking over a Marvel movie score e.g. 16:42
yeah, there is also allot of "you should feel positive about this point" and "you should feel negative about this point" music going on. Its manipulative, and totally unneeded the content speaks for itself without it.
The music is also continually clipped and distorted, like it's been amplified and then hard clipped or compressed to compete in the "loudness war"
French Polynesia is a comparable, even more distant logistic challenge, with principal exchanges with the French mainland. Volumes are much lower tho but it's still incredible how we can supply islands so far away
I have friend who vacation in Hawaii (from California) every year, but this year they went to French Polynesia and they confirmed that prices there were way higher than Hawaii
I've been to Christmas Island (part of Australia) and there you have the same issue. A small population, far away from the mainland means that prices are very high, especially for perishables which have to be flown in, as cargo ships only arrive every few weeks (it's in fact a ship getting the phospate they mine there and it brings containers over), if they can offload as they don't really have a secluded harbour.
And with 5 flights per week and quite small planes, even that has to be subsidized to actually work. And they have some sort of netting to actually place cargo in the main seating area.
Excited for this video. I became a farmer 10 years ago because we are so isolated in Hawai'i. The ease and convenience of modern supply chains made people forget that we are in fact living on an island.
Farming is difficult because of the soil though, right? It seems like Hawaii’s population just far exceeds what the land is capable of sustaining naturally. I wonder, if tourism wasn’t a thing, could the islands sustain the actual residents? I’d guess there would also be way less actual residents too because so many jobs are there because of tourism.
@@conor7154 The soil is prime for agriculture, the bigger issue for farmers are the cost of land and water availability.
The potential to feed Hawaii's population is there. One study deduced that 1 million metric tons of food was being produced on ~250,000 acres in pre-contact times (you can Google "natalie kurashima hawaii" to find that). The last study estimated Hawai'i consumes 1.14 million metric tons per year, so not terribly far off?
Yes, tourists are another factor, with about 10 million people visiting annually, but I don't think we need to worry about feeding them, because I don't even think we should be striving to be 100% self sufficient. Hawaiian mythology is full of stories of famine, drought, and killing chiefs for poor land management practices. They were totally self sufficient, but also totally susceptible to natural disasters. Growing more food doesn't mean cutting off the life line to the rest of the world.
@@conor7154wendover described it pretty well, we really have no incentive for hawaii to be a "money making" state apart from the fact that tourism drives almost all of the economy of the islands, and anyone not in tourism business is usually just able to sustain because of government / high paying company work, which is what the main housing market here targets if you are trying to live near the main cities
everyone else usually from here lives local on the outer islands like maui where local farming and work might be more productive or further northwest oahu
big island is also largely small spread out communities as well, but the issue there for the companies and grocery stores is that most people live sooo far apart that both the tourism and sticking around for the low far apart population isnt profitable, so there is a lot more incentive for local businesses there and outside of areas like Hilo
@@conor7154 Hawaii needs to open up the other islands other than Oahu. The other islands are just about empty. One of the reasons is due to private land ownership. We are talking about one person/family who owns 100k acres like on Kauai etc. Larry Ellison owns 98% of the entire island of Lanai.
You forgot to mention that Hawaiian islands are not on the great circle route between USA and other places on earth. So regardless of other limitations, every shipper will have to spend the same amount of time/ energy/ fuel to move a container.
PS - great circle route is the shortest path between two points on the surface of a sphere, such as the Earth.
4:50 Completely wrong speculation.
The distance between Long Beach, CA, and Shanghai, China, is 5,708nm and takes ~15.9 days at 15kts. The distance between Long Beach and Honolulu is 2,231nm (6.2 days @ 15kt) and Honolulu to Shanghai is 4,572nm (12.75 days) for a total distance of 6,803nm and ~19 days - plus the dwell time in Honolulu (1-2 days?). A shipping company is not going to add 1,100nm to a journey and two to four days for the paltry revenue brought in at Honolulu. Consider that 3 days steaming at 15kts for a ultralarge containership si on the order of 300 tons of fuel at $500-700/ton. That's $180,000 in extra fuel costs, alone, not to mention the other expenses--like the need to buy another ship to fill the gap in the lengthened schedule.
Note also that the Pasha ship you show at 5:03, and Matson's new Kanaloa ships are CONRO ships that can take both containerized and roll-on/roll-off cargo. CONRO ships wouldn't be competitive in the Shanghai-Long Beach route, but are useful in the Jones Act trade so people can move cars, trucks, and equipment.
I am currently in a very isolated place for work and the grocery prices here are ridiculous. I am in Nome, Alaska.
greet the outdoor boys from me
I visited Nome Alaska, and I live in Hawaii. I can confirm that prices in Nome is higher than Hawaii 🫠
Are they though? Or are they just reflecting the ridiculousness of living in a very isolated place with the same conveniences as in much more central places?
@@Taladar2003yeah, it’s expensive in hell even in Juneau
But Polar Bear gall bladders are cheap :-)))))
"No other country has tried to so thoroughly integrate a territory so far from its core"
French Guyana has entered the chat
The discrepancy in income of mainland France vs French Guiana is insane though. GDP per capita of Guiana is 16k Euros while it's 60k Euros for mainland France.
@@Arkiasis why would that be insane? have you seen how different the two regions are? Both are pretty in line with their neighbors.
@@john_smith_john Well because French Guiana is a part of France it should be in line with France and not it's neighbors
@danshakuimo is like he missed the point of what you were saying lol
Fun fact: protectionism has also lead to US ship *building* industry being weak, because what they have is basically targeted towards military vessels (because there's also rules about military vessels *only* being allowed to be built domestically). There's now talks about co-operating with e.g. Finland after we joined NATO, because we know how to build ice breakers.
Another fun fact: "a millennia" is wrong, because "millennia" is a plural form. "A millennium" is correct.
Military vessels on the calibre of the united states, especially given the kind of technology integrated, should certainly be only built domestically. Nobody has anything on the highest end US capabilities
@@samiraperi467 So you're saying if we don't continue our protectionism, US ship building could be Finnished?!
@@namm0x326 The Hanwha Ocean shipyard in South Korea was recently awarded a contract for a ship maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) contract from the U.S. Navy back in August 2024. We've been losing our edge with shipbuilding while our competition has caught up more and more, and that is a big issue.
@@namm0x326 US ship building isn't that great, all of their vessels have huge problems that require multi year overhauls even on newer vessels.
You fundamentally don't understand. US wages and cost across the board are higher. Explain to me why a shipbuilder would build in the US without a law requiring it.
There's another kind of supply chain isolation that doesn't have anything to do with distance: population
I live in an area that's very small, so even though we're literally next door to the farms a lot of the products originate from, the corporations don't consider us WORTH shipping the good produce and perishables to, so we get the shit at the end of the line
Can you buy direct from the producers?
Also, these should be good candidates for backhaul so surprised it's so expensive!
@@TheWolfXCIXif you just so happed to be passing buy, and the farmer just so happened to be free, you might save a few bucks. Otherwise the cost of going to the different individual producers for a few onions or potatoes makes it unfeasible.
It’s not that they don’t consider it, it’s that you aren’t. They’re not going to just operate on a loss or massively complicate their operation for less than their minimum margin target. There of plenty of places like that so governments usually subsidize the companies and hope people move inland.
Two Words: Farmers market.
A large part of why Hawaiian domestic agriculture died down was because the mainland could produce things cheaper. Most notably meat. That's why all of polynesia is incredibly into canned meat that could be more easily shipped from afar.
Before pineapples and sugar, Hawaii exported a lot of potatoes to the West Coast. I guess there's no way that could happen now, with such established potato farms in the Northwest.
I made a Hawaiian dish yesterday and it called for Spam. Kids loved it but I thought it was strange until I saw this video.
It's interesting to see how many of the issues you raised resonate with our experience in the French Caribbean, despite its close integration with France. Food prices are often 30-40% higher, as much of it is imported from mainland France. Supermarket chains, typically owned by the descendants of former slave owners, control the entire importation process, allowing them to impose exorbitant margins. Meanwhile, much of our agricultural land remains tied to sugarcane and banana production for export to Europe. It’s absurd that bananas grown locally can end up being more expensive on the island than in Europe, where they are exported. These systems, rooted in colonization, were established to benefit the colonizing countries-France in our case, much like the U.S. in Hawaii-at the expense of the local population.
Now ... let's talk about pricing in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon, in Canada ... where 24 bottles of Nestle water skyrockets sometimes to CA$74.
Where milk is CA$10 for 2L.
All the same problems but worse - very long distances (and without the scale that cargo ships provides), and chunks of the years where there may be no road at all to get there. (Used to plan trucks for food deliveries; there's a river that during ice breakup you have to helicopter the product across at a buck a pound - and that's in addition to the rest of the trip.)
Do the people who live there earn a Canadian median wage, or are their wages adjusted to the cost of living?
@@Tuppoo94 they make a bit more than minimum, but most are barely above poverty.
Also, the government provides some subsidies.
@@Tuppoo94 neither really, Inuit communities are some of the most affected by food insecurity than southerners. they pay you less if youre native and want a job to support yourself or your family and most households are unable to meet the recommended nutritional requirement due to high food costs and restrictions to access traditional food sources like fish marine mammals and land animals. they were also hit the worst by RSV because of medical apartheid and tylenol shortages and children and babies couldnt receive the care they needed. welfare isnt great either, the federal government expects you to live off of what is basically breadcrumbs(i personally experience this with disability welfare since im unable to work, it doesnt even last for two weeks after being paid out) and magically not end up homeless. food deserts exist up here too as major grocers only exist in the more ʼmetropolitanʼ areas(like Iqaluit as an example) and dont really service smaller remote hamlets and villages. its fokked no matter which way you look at it
I remember watching a RUclips video about grocery prices in Nome Alaska a few years ago showing prices for various items, one of the products was bottled water. I do not remember what the selling price was, however it was very outrageous. The thought I had was why would someone in Nome purchase water bottled probably in the lower 48.
I’ve lived in Hawaii most my life with the exception of middle school on Camp Pendleton. Everything here is apparently expensive, in comparison to what ya’ll pay. I’m sure there’s exceptions but it really annoys me that we aren’t self reliant. With all the money from tourism, you’d think we’d have better infrastructure or public transportation but instead we get classier hotels and land in the 80-100k range. There isn’t a lot of hope for people in my generation to get a home and it really sucks.
I will say, the Hilo hospital is getting a massive upgrade and a lot of the roads are getting repaved but energy and food production really need to be moved to priority 1
I worked in construction. Would it surprise you to know that the State DOT's (Dept of Transportation, the guys who take care of and administer the State roadways) idea of road maintenance was to only patch pot holes and only when the roadway was very very bad, to repave it? Well it was. Only in the last several years have they shifted to a maintenance program, so if you look at H1 near UH and see the sealed roadway?...........well that's when it started. Before then, did anyone ever see seam sealer on AC roadways? Nope.
@@TeeRollss it makes sense when there's a lot of roads and so little workers but just goes to show how tax payers money was being spent. I live on the Big Island and never visited the other islands that much. I had to see a specialist for both my hand surgery and kidney stones (every single specialist in Hawaii is on Oahu...) and damn it's night and day compared to Big Island. Ya'll have actuall overpasses, trains that apparently dont get used very much, I mean the whole 9 yards.
@@BruTheThreat 13 years and still not done with the choo choo train. It's ridiculous.
I signed up for weekly emails on Hawaiian cooking recipes... It's all Spam!
okay dad
@WanderingExistence there’s reason they call it “the Hawaiian steak”
because it was cheap.
I'm pretty sure that when you sign up for "Weekly emails" ... regardless of the topic... its going to be all spam. lol
Funny
Fun thing with the San Diego to SLC to Missoula supply chain mentioned: the Albertsons DC is just far enough north that a single truck can tow two 48 foot trailers to Missoula in a single shift, spend the night, then return the next day. One driver can move 6 truckloads from SLC to Missoula every week!
FYI at 13:38 you describe the location as the Maui Paradise Condo. That is a single rental unit within the building. The building is actually the Menehune Shores Condominium.
22:13 this music is far too triumphant for what is being said
Another problem with the Jones Act and shipping, is the US lacks shipyards that can't actually build modern cargo ships, and are on the whole, about 20-25 years behind the rest of the world in technology. This has also been a problem with building wind farms, and modern harbors. The US lacks the skills to build any of these vessels.
I would say we lack the financial incentive. If there was money to be made, you can be we would have people doing it.
@@NONO-hz4vo This is the issue. Most other nations with large merchant marines have invested the necessary resources. The US government, for whatever reason, refuses to do so, even though there would be significant benefits in both the military and commercial sectors.
@@wilsonriley1856 Not the government’s job to pick winners and losers. I don’t want my tax dollars propping up inefficient and outmoded industries.
22:38 Part of being a state within the United States means the ability to rely upon other states. We don't expect each of the other 49 states to be self-reliant, so why should we expect it of Hawaii? This is not to say single-points of failure, like the Honolulu Harbor, shouldn't be resolved.
Oahu has another deepwater port- it’s Pearl Harbor.
Mostly because Hawaii is physically isolated and vulnerable to slow response from the other states (or anyone really) following any disaster
Federal Government also subsidizes US flagged containerships. So the other states are helping Hawaii out somewhat I guess
There's ideals, then there's reality.
@@doujinflip All legitimate points. But the ideal solution to a disaster won't be local farms. It would be pre-staged warehouses filled with non-perishable supplies and foods, regardless of origin.
My overall point is that unless the Kingdom of Hawaii is restored, the goal of having this island chain be self-reliant needs to be critically evaluated - not just presumed valid on its own.
Why is the background music so loud?
Love your informational videos.
I really would love that you make some videos about the non-State territories of the USA that we know so little about. Guam, Northern Mariana, US Samoa, US Virgins Islands, Puerto Rico ❤️
He has one on guam
Also kamaaina discounts are not for tourists. This prevents inflation from tourism affecting the local economy as much.
@@Maxime_K-Gits not segregation, its just a discount for locals lol. Anybody can still buy
@@Maxime_K-G Segregation? Wow…that’s a freaking mental leap I wish I could have seen in real time.
@@Maxime_K-GI don't know, but maybe you can say you identify yourself as a local? 😂
@@Maxime_K-G Wait till you find out about all the stores that do military discounts all across the country. Insane class discrimination, why should they get a discount just because they are military?
@@Maxime_K-G There was a South Park episode about people like you visiting Hawaii.
As someone who was born and raised in Hawaii I want to thank you so much for making a video like this. It's important to spread the knowledge that you shared along with raising awareness of a state that isn't all "paradise". 🤙🏽
As a girl from Hilo living on the mainland, I grew up eating taro, fish, papaya, rice noodles. Most of my family stayed and work in tourism.
The Hilo farmers market is one of my favorite spots in the world. I think it's possible to survive entirely on food grown on the Big Island today without even spending as much as you would on imported foods.
@@iankrasnow5383I live in the Big Island and we make it a point to spend 75 percent of our food dollars locally. Most of our meat, fish, milk, vegetables and fruits are local. We substitute things like potatoes with local foods like 'ulu. We even buy local chocolate and coffee and many spices. I do have a weakness for good cheese and wine, though, so Costco runs still happen. But we don't NEED those things.
@@raez7155 I spent 6 months between Hilo, Puna and Honoka’a in 2012 and miss my ohana like crazy.
No one cares what a girl eats. Why you felt the need to announce you are a girl is beyond me.
I lived in honolulu til 2020, and I was paying less for groceries in 2019 there, than I am in Virginia in 2024. That said, I left because of financial infeasibility. Cost of living isn't as ridiculous as some people claim, but the real disparity is that income levels and job opportunities are worse than the mainland, while having cost of living similar to NYC or SF.
The value of the dollar went down
@@MrIansmitchell no shit
@@dvoob😂
@@MrIansmitchell The value of the dollar has barely changed in a decade. The dollar is actually overvalued.
Bull crap. If you look at our prices now in 2024 I'll bet you our cost of living is higher than yours. That's what 4 years of Biden-nomics does.
Another example of cost of living down here...........for many hurricane insurance is mandatory (if you have a mortgage), luckily for me it's not. This year my insurance which was about $3,000 per year for the past nearly 20 years jumped to $6,300 per year. I did not renew my insurance. This is in spite of the fact that Hawaii hasn't had to pay out a hurricane claim since Iniki nearly 30 years ago.
I spent three weeks in Honolulu for an internship back in 2023 and people didn't believe me until I took pictures of the food (even at the Pearl Harbor Navy Commissary) that was 2-3 times more expensive than back home. Milk was roughly $8-9 depending on percentage. 12 pack of Sprite was $15. 1 regular size normal AriZona Ice Tea - $3. Frozen TV dinners were $5-6 each. Loaf of bread was $5. Normal night out for a burger and fries - $25 before taxes and tip.
Only note I'll correct you on is that beef is mostly not shipped in from the mainland, on the North side of Oahu there are TONS of cattle ranches (Kauloa Ranch is where A LOT of movies are filmed too). Most of that is the state artificially placing a price floor to subsidize smaller ranches and farms in Hawai'i.
Pineapples were the only cheap perishables obviously.
You're wrong a
Bout the beef
What are the normal prices for those?
Like I thought 15 for 12 pack was cheap ngl.
12:14 - They built their main seaport on the coast? *FOOLS!!* That's just what they expect you to do!
🫥
The US has many inland ports, like on the Great Lakes
@@307pdl Yeah, let's build new ones in the great lakes of hawaii...
This has to be my favorite video on your channel. Really puts a lot into perspective.
Has RUclips been pushing creators to add background music to the videos? I'm into it, but for some parts the music was weirdly upbeat for the topic.
No they dont
Economic Anthropology of Hawaii is so interesting! Amazing video
Those bananas have been ripened with ethylene gas. They don’t just arrive from Ecuador and start turning yellow. It’s a five day process heating the bananas to 63.5 degrees F and then backing off the temperature over the next five days until they are ready to send to store.
21:20 quite sure that's Tenerife. A place with pretty much the same problems, maybe to convey the point of not being unique at the end of the video and not a mistake since the landscape is also similar
He explicitly mentions the Canary Islands a couple seconds later, so I'd guess that's not a mistake
@@chedatomasz I know, but those 2 pictures are the only ones from outside hawai and he does mention other islands that are not shown
It is Tenerife :) it shows Los Cristianos and Las Americas. We have similar problemas indeed, but not at the same scale. Canary islands are less than a day by ship to mainland Spain, so food is more expensive but not as crazy as I saw in the video.
Issue with an economy fuel by low salary industries like Hotels etc and huge housing price due to people from outside purchasing is a similar problem. It is very sad :(
Hawaii could certainly have their own domestic egg production.
We do, but it's cheaper to ship eggs from the mainland.
Chickens need to eat in order to lay eggs, it's most likely hard to create enough food for them to produce enough eggs for all of Hawaii
@@voorachter2733 What in the hell are you talking about? Have you never heard about Hawaii's chicken issues? Kauai is infested with escaped chickens. No one is feeding them, but there are hordes of them.
@@TeeRollss You think a handful of wild chickens van feed Hawaii? You have any idea how massive egg farms are?
@@voorachter2733 That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying Hawaii is geographically isolated, has a small population (relatively speaking) and suffers from economies of scale. I stated earlier that it is cheaper to ship eggs from the mainland, not that Hawaii couldn't produce that amount of feed for chickens. Hawaii was one of the largest single suppliers for pineapples and sugar cane so we can easily produce feed.
It is cheaper to ship eggs from the mainland.
I hope this is a sign that your next Jet Lag series will be island hopping in Hawaii!!!
Maxinonics already covered it pretty well check him out hes really good
The next will be back in Japan as we could see by the teaser at the end of the last Tag Across Europe season, but maybe the one after that. I guess that would be in the likes of the New Zealand season and the boys from the Trash Taste podcast also did a challenge run across Hawaii, akin to Jet Lag
Living out here in the middle of the Pacific, you just have to marvel at the insane logistics that allows us to be here. Mahalo!
He should do a video about the logistics of Alaska.
I was going to say the same thing, as a Juneau local so many of the problems seem to be mirrored here
I have a friend in Point Hope and it's INSANE the prices up there. Thank goodness for the stipend every Alaskan receives by the state.
1:23 Those cans are different than the mainland. The machines to make them were imported awhile ago and the material savings to change them out just isn't there.
This is gonna be another Wendover classic
Daves bagels are $6 in Seattle Safeways and $11 in Kailua-Kona.
Excellent report. I went there in 2022 for 15-days and visited 3 islands. I was amazed at the prices there and was aware that almost everything was imported.
Basically every non tropical fruit including bananas is imported, as they just don't grow there, they're invasive, or something else on the islands destroys the plants
This is an amazingly accurate portrayal of the challenges faced here in Hawaii. It's extremely fragile and can easily fail given the right circumstance or threat.
Wow this video is really well researched. Did not expect ahupua'a to be mentioned
reawakening middle school hawai'ian history class memories
Figured he did not say ahupua'a because most views would not know what it was. Would be good if every person who is moving would see this video first.
Te Jones Act is guarantees shipping to Hawaii. If it is eliminated shipping to Hawaii will only be done as long as it's profitable. There will be no control over price or guarantee of service.
It is profitable... or it wouldn't be done...
I have been in that Safeway, the prices were outrageous. Now I know why.
lousy democrats
It took me by surprise how some things simply weren't available, and prices were sky-high for many things. I did guess why (eventually!), but this is a very interesting video
My favorite grocery store in Hawaii is Don Quijote. Coming from Seattle most of the Asian and Hawaiian goods are like half the price as where I'm from, like Portuguese sausage and noodles 🤤
It's also Safeway. There are far cheaper places for groceries in Hawaii
A gallon of milk is routinely $5.99 at Safeway and $5.97 at Walmart. There have been price spikes in the past due to supply shortages that also affected other states. It can be $7+ in other stores but I don't see $10 as mentioned in this vid.
13:43 I stayed in an air bnb in this building back in 2022. At that time, the units for sale in that building (2bed 2bath) were selling for like $1.4m/unit
Need more lore on man of the sandwich at 16:14
but as a half as interesting video it would be nice
It's because in the past, Hawai'i was known as the Sandwich Isles, but the word 'isles' will have been cropped off in the picture shown.
Hawai'i used to be named after the Earl of Sandwich. I believe Cook named them such, despite the natives having their own names.
What upsets me the most is that, when there are local foods/produce in stores, it is often more expensive than goods from the Continent!! Wth?!?
As a Native Hawaiian, I want to buy goods produce from our 'aina (land), but in all reality, to make my money stretch the farthest, I often cannot do this. It breaks my heart when, due to necessity, I have to choose mainland goods over local ones. 💔
We need to replace the Jones Act with a subsidy for US-built and US-flagged ships. Take 1% of the defense budget and that'd probably be enough to massively expand ships and shipbuilding capacity in case of a war while also making shipping cheaper within the US, provided it was smartly applied ($ per ship would make them churn out of a ton of bad tiny ships, maybe a certain number of $ per ton transported?)
We used to have the Jones Act and the Construction Differential Subsidy and Operation Differential Subsidy systems. When the subsidies went away, so did the majority of the US shipbuilding industry and US flag ships. We need to stop extending US Navy protection to the open-registry Flags of Convenience. All those Houthi missiles and drones the USN shot down? Not our problem.
1% of the defense budget would be a good start. A better start would be 1% of what we spend on entitlement programs.
We used to have an organization that managed the US subsidy programs. The US Maritime Administration (and its predecessor, the US Maritime Commission). Oh, hey, MARAD still exists, but hasn't been doing anything useful for the last decade or so. We should make them start working for a living, again.
@olpaint71 they got new training ships which is nice.
3:01 - Fun Fact, this law killed the American cruise and coastal ferry industry. Simply put: the US simply did not and does not have enough American civilian sailors to operate businesses in those industries. So those businesses died; the law had the opposite effect for certain maritime industries; and this is why, while its still uncommon, you can find coastal ferry services in other countries to other countries, but not the USA to anywhere, not even other US ports. Before the law you could catch a coastal ferry to just about any other US port, and to a number of different countries in the Caribbean as well; likewise there was a thriving American centered cruise industry.
In effect, the Jones Act has far reaching consequences and they are generally all very negative for American maritime industries.
There is at least one example. Port Angles(Washington state) to Victoria(British Columbia, Canada).
The fact you even still have a merchant marine is important. In countries like Australia and New Zealand we have none. We are island nations completely dependent upon foreign ships with foreign crew who are paid by foreign owners.
I'm so excited for the American states (and territories?) series to continue! I love these episodes.
sir, USA = illegal nation. Search how USA was founded, via illegitamate revolution and revolt against established and recognized authority.
Heh. Five seconds in, talking about the remoteness of the location, and I was all "Hey, that's the Safeway on Maui! I bought rice cakes there!"
I've only been to Maui once, and I too recognized that Safeway!
I guarantee that Hawaiian Safeway has a lot more Spam in stock than the one in Seattle.
Last time I was there at the Walmart near the Ala Moana Center which is a mile or two from Waikiki, they keep the Spam locked down in a clear plastic container, available by request only.
I just saw gochujang flavored Spam at Maui's Costco. Didn't buy...not enough gochujang flavor for my taste. I'll just slather it on from the jars of gochujang that are made in Korea shipped to Long Beach then shipped to Honolulu before being barged to Kahului. Aigu. What a Koyaanisqatsi way of life we humans have built.
@@HoakaloaThe "Portuguese Sausage" Spam was pretty weak. No help coming from a bottle, either.
@21:44 counterpoint, French Guiana.
1:58 How does Oahu have 8 Raising Cane’s while Charlotte, Detroit, Jacksonville, Seattle have a combined 0?
Best current documentary on Hawaii’s Jones act controversy
12:29...All container cranes and ports are located on the coast?
You just haven't come across the amphibious 10,000 TEU containerships that drive to the inland ports yet ;)
Thank you for highlighting this.
I live on the Big Island and the situation with Young Brothers is scary.
During Covid you would go to the grocery store and whole shelves would be empty because of shipping from Oahu not coming as often.
During covid shelves on Oahu were empty too...
Can you do another on Alaska logistics?
This video was even better than I expected. Mahalo for covering so many of Hawaii's issues.
The music mix volume is quite distracting
I’d love to see something on the logistics of Alaska! As a local, I know some of these problems are mirrored here but there’s also some key differences. Would be a great video!
Fascinating video! I had known of bits and pieces, but not how the total picture fit together.
Really great video. I learned a lot from this one, particularly about historic food sovereignty in Hawaii.
I'd love if you did a video about similar food-supply-chain-based logistics challenges in northern Canada. Those Hawaii prices are downright tame compared to what's being charged in some remote, northern, and indigenous communities.
Hawaiians should just use a VPN and order food through a mainland IP
Where is FedEx going to ship it, to your IP address?
Seems legit
Hawaiian stores don't want you to know about this one neat trick.
99% of retailers hate this man
Homie using 100% of his Brain
There's a really small, VERY old Pasha container ship that operates out of the Port of Los Angeles (or at least it used to). The Horizon Spirit was built in 1980 and carries just 2437 TEUs.
Compared with a more modern container ship meeting (original) Panamax standards which can carry up to 4500 TEUs or the infamous Ever Given which has a capacity of a whopping 20,124 TEUs.
I don't believe th3yd mske draft at Honolulu harbor
You should really talk with Sal over at What’s Going on with Shipping.
Great channel
I love Sal but I can't help but feel like he's got an unhelpful bias on the Jones Act. As a former merchant mariner, of course he's in favor of it.
@@IFRYRCEthe alternative would be reliance on foreign built, crewed shipping. We are already too reliant on China. They put data gathering and kill switch technology in their terminal cranes. They could shut down a great amount of our infrastructure as it is.
@@IFRYRCE Actually, I am in favor of reform and creating a new Merchant Marine act that would replace the 1920 act.
What I am not in favor of is merely repealing the act and thinking foreign shipping is the solution. I think you see from the video that the Hawaii trade requires small, fast, and dedicated ships and this not something that most foreign shippers care about, unless you pay them premium...which is the argument against the Jones Act.
Also, military cargo has to go on US flagged vessels and that makes up a good chunk of the cargo Matson and Pasha ships, so you will still need US flag ships for the trade.
@@wgowshipping Good job on the RNZN Manawanui video the other day. NZ allows almost unrestricted foreign shipping and it has left us with, I believe, only a single coastal ship left. I agree that totally unrestricted is not the best alternative to the Jones Act.
First half of the video made me want to start a new pocket planes or trains save and the second half made me wanna make a new farming sim save 😂
You should do a video on “Hawaiian grown beef” because it’s very unique and is barely Hawaiian grown…
Calves are shipped to the mainland, fed, slaughtered, and shipped back to Hawai'i. That's why "local" beef is more expensive. Nobody wants a slaughterhouse here.
@nancydurch7645 it's not that no one wants a slaughterhouse here, it's just cheaper to do it in the huge slaughterhouse factories on the mainland
As a resident, I can tell you've done your homework. Good job! Even the pronunciation was good. I'm less optimistic about raising our own food. For one, we'd have to eat what we can raise. But the average diet is closer to US than traditional Hawaiian. The other problem is workers. Back in the plantation days, they brought in immigrants from Japan, China, and Philippines. Most pushed their kids into higher education, so if they ever worked on the farm it would be accountant or manager, not field worker. There's "Help Wanted" signs all over for fast food and other low-end jobs. I don't know as we'd ever get the workers needed to raise our own food.
The labor force for diversified agriculture is now from Mexico (in the 00's on Maui) and south east asia now (think Aloon Farms up by Costco in central Oahu).
4:55 “charging far far more to move the same 40 f*ckin tainer”
Pretty much true
The Jones act protects American workers, that's something we should do even if its not the most efficient.
The video author also says in a free market, jones act ships wouldn't exist. A free market isn't better if Americans would have to be treated like 3rd world country workers.
0:26 Eh.... Pedant corner here. Perth , Australia. 2M people same distance from Adelaide. Great content!
The Jones act also applies to the 5 million or so residents of the US territories. It pretty much chokes the economy of those places, crippling the economy by making exports too expensive.
The unintended result is that industry is almost impossible, jobs are scarce, the those territories are sunk into endless poverty.
It should be exchanged by a system that affects all states equally.
9:55 well, hello
Infrastructure at the Port of Honolulu is vulnerable to only two forces, tsunami and hurricanes? Don't forget what happened less than 3 miles west at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. China would likely target the Port of Honolulu in the first hours of WWIII, with the goal being to cripple the US Pacific Fleet, though destroying civilian logistical infrastructure would be a bonus.
15:57 and a much much lower population??? Or are you saying ancient hawaii also had millions living there...
It's not about reestablishing the very same system, but to learn from it for solutions beyond what is utilized so far, mitigating risks.
Food sovereignty won't happen that way, especially with a focus on cash crops.
They had almost 900k Hawaiians before European contact. Today hawaii has 1.4 million. Not so much difference
@@rbryanhull Over 50% more people is a huge difference.
I’ve lived in Hawaii since the late ‘80s and although I was familiar with a lot of what you discussed, I certainly learned a lot, too. One thing that I don’t believe you mentioned is that jobs in Hawaii often pay less than comparable jobs on the Mainland (as we refer to the Continental United States). This has often been called “The Paradise Tax”, as in you’ve got to pay to live in paradise. This issue was somewhat alleviated by the Coronavirus Pandemic as many local workers were able to get remote jobs doing the work they had been doing here but at Mainland pay rates. I work in the tech sector and I went to a vendor event soon after restrictions on gatherings were lifted. One of my table mates worked IT for a major healthcare provider. She told me that pre-Pandemic, they were able to offer new hires less money on the basis of residing here (often near family) but that had changed since Mainland companies were offering them far more money for remote work.
I can't concentrate on Sam's voice because the music is so generic and overly clipped to the point where it starts making weird noises, like the weird distortion sounding like someone breathing at 20:32. Just hire me to fix this stuff already, Sam
I agree with much of want is said here. However at 12:15 an image is shown of a container ship with cranes that is able to self load and unload. It is docked at a location with no shore based cranes. These are not as fast as shore based container cranes but they do the job.
I lived on Maui for 4 years, starting right when sugar production stopped. To see the islands and their people slowly begin to reclaim their independence against powerful economic and political forces designed to benefit others has inspired both awe and hope in me. This video reflects those feelings I have while neatly summarizing the practicalities and history of the situation. Wendover at its best.
Do you have the same positive feeling with rich Californians coming to HI and buying up a lot of the real estate driving up prices?
One thing not mentioned about the high cost of shipping to Hawaii is that in former times, Matson shipped a lot of sugar and pineapple to the mainland. Since the decline of both industries, their ships travel to the mainland mostly empty. Consequently, Matson has to add the cost of sending the ships back to the mainland to the price of shipping goods to Hawaii. So effectively, consumers must pay for two-way shipping for everything that comes in. 😔
Complaining about the Jones Act making shipping expensive is like complaining emancipation of the slaves made cotton expensive. Correct, it makes things more expensive. Worth it for not using slave labor in both cases.
Many will cope about this
Actually, cotton became significantly cheaper after emancipation because mechanization replaced human labor and quickly became exponentially more productive.
@@wallyballou7417 that's not remotely the point. The point is it's ALWAYS worth it to pay more to not use slaves, or the modern equivalent. And it is a good thing to legislate away use of them even if it costs more.
@@z987k It’s exactly the point. The Jones act makes building and operating US ships uncompetitive. That’s why there is no US shipping industry. Protectionism NEVER works. It just makes things more expensive, shelters inefficient and outmoded people and processes from necessary change, and lines the pockets of the politically connected.
Very well researched and explained. Thank you for bringing more attention to this.