00:00People living in Hawaii need to make at least twice the average salary in the rest of the
00:11U.S. to live comfortably. Those who aren't ready to pay five bucks for a gallon of milk
00:16have to look for happiness elsewhere. And year after year, the state makes it to the
00:21top lines of the population loss rating. While the local middle class is leaving, Hawaii
00:27is turning into a heaven for billionaires. Just 37 of them already own 11% of all the
00:36private land in the Aloha State. Larry Ellison, co-founder of the Oracle Corporation, bought
00:4398% of the island of Lanai, including the grocery store, the only gas station, and the
00:49community newspaper, all for a nifty sum of 300 million bucks. This makes him the boss
00:57and landlord of everyone on the island. Mark Zuckerberg, the Metta founder and CEO, is
01:02building a huge compound on Kauai with more than a dozen buildings, at least 30 bedrooms
01:08and bathrooms, a tunnel leading to a 5,000 square feet underground bunker, and 11 tree
01:15houses connected by intricate rope bridges. The local residents with ancestral rights
01:20to this land lost in court and had to put it up for auction. The Malaysian tycoon,
01:27Kwek Leng Khan, owns a third of the island of Molokai through his business empire. Of
01:33course, these and some of the world's richest people create new jobs and invest in development
01:38projects on the islands. But still, nearly two-thirds of the locals believe that their
01:43state is being run for tourists at the expense of the residents.
01:51A lot of famous people like to live in Walea and Makina in Maui because it's peaceful and
01:56gives them the privacy they want. Oprah Winfrey has a big house up in the local hills. Jeff
02:02Bezos, the founder of Amazon, reportedly bought a huge house by La Perouse Bay for $78 million.
02:11Other famous people who live in Maui include Clint Eastwood, Mick Fleetwood, Jim Carrey,
02:17and Alice Cooper. When you visit Maui, you can see a special
02:21Hall of Fame display at the airport showing those celebrities. It's supposed to celebrate
02:26their ties with the island, but the local people feel like it only highlights the huge
02:31gap between the new super-wealthy residents and the local people who can barely afford
02:36to live there. As the rich and famous keep buying property
02:39across Hawaii, home prices continue to rise. It's more expensive to buy a house here than
02:46in Washington, D.C. or California. Part of the reason for such high pricing is
02:52how the land itself is formed. Hawaii is bigger than most people think, but it's made up of
02:57lots of separate islands that are spread far apart. Even though the islands are big, not
03:03all of the land can be used to build houses or neighborhoods. Unlike most of the U.S.,
03:08which has a lot of flat land and gentle hills, much of Hawaii is made up of steep, rocky
03:14mountains and rough terrain. This kind of land is very hard to build on or live on.
03:20Because of this, most of the people on Hawaii, about 1 million of them, live on the island
03:25called Oahu. The other islands, like the Big Island, have
03:29far fewer people. There isn't enough land for everyone, and that makes it hard for people
03:34who have lived in Hawaii their whole lives to afford a place to live.
03:42Tourism makes up 21% of the state's economy. Most of the visitors come from the United
03:47States and Japan. Tourists bring in tons of money, but there's a problem. Depending too
03:53much on tourism can be risky for Hawaii. In the recent years, because of we all know
03:59what happened, a health rule called the Conditional Sail Order stopped cruise ships from coming
04:04to Hawaii for health safety reasons. Many other tourist activities, like visiting beaches
04:10or attending events, were also shut down. With fewer visitors, Hawaii earned a lot less
04:17money, which hurt the economy. To avoid this problem in the future, Hawaii has been trying
04:22to make money in other ways besides tourism. One idea is to invest more in fishing, but
04:29this hasn't been easy. At some point, there was too much fishing going on here, and now,
04:35Hawaii has to bring in 63% of its seafood from other places instead of catching it nearby.
04:42There are farms here that grow pineapples, macadamia nuts, coffee, and produce milk.
04:47But now, farming isn't as important as it was a hundred years ago. Probably one of the
04:53reasons is that it's more profitable to sell the land for houses or hotels than to use
04:58it for farming. This change made Hawaii even more dependent on tourism and made living
05:03in the Aloha State so very pricey.
05:12Honolulu is reported to be the 7th most expensive city to live in in the U.S.
05:17A family of four spends around $8,000 a month here, and a single adult will have to pay,
05:23on average, $2,500. Food alone costs around $500 a person, for one month. Most of the
05:31food in Hawaii, about 85 to 90%, comes from faraway places. Since it has to travel more
05:38than 2,500 miles to get there, around one-third of all the food spoils along the way, especially
05:45because Hawaii is warm and humid. This waste makes things more expensive because stores
05:52know they'll lose some of their products and charge more to cover their losses. There
05:57aren't as many stores competing with each other. If stores don't compete, they have
06:01no reason to lower their prices. On top of that, they have to pay a lot for things like
06:07rent and electricity, so they raise their prices to make up for those costs.
06:14Speaking of electricity, an average bill is around $200, which is almost 90% higher
06:20than the national average. Yep, the Aloha State has the highest energy costs in the
06:25country. And perhaps that's why people in Hawaii use the least amount of electricity
06:30compared to other states. But their bills are still much higher. The main reason is
06:37the price per unit of electricity, called a kilowatt hour. One unit of electricity costs
06:43almost 40 cents. To compare, Utah has the cheapest rate at just 10.91 cents. It's so
06:51expensive in Hawaii because most of the electricity comes from oil, and that oil has to be shipped
06:57to the islands. Since Hawaii depends so much on oil, energy costs go up and down with oil
07:04prices. On top of all that, the income tax is some of the highest in the country.
07:14A quarter of all households in Hawaii spent more than their income in 2024. To survive,
07:20people used savings and credit cards and cut expenses. They also had to work more hours
07:25or get an extra job. They were forced to sell their belongings and borrow money from relatives,
07:31banks, or other lenders. Almost half of residents are in the category called ALICE, and it has
07:36nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland. It means asset-limited, income-constrained, employed.
07:44More than one in three residents lives below the ALICE annual income threshold. And then,
07:50there's also legislation that further complicates things for Hawaii. It says that any goods
07:56shipped between places in the U.S. must be carried on ships that are owned, built, and
08:01run by Americans. This makes shipping much more expensive, because U.S. ships and crews
08:07cost a lot more than ships from other countries. Most of the world's ships don't follow
08:12these rules because they're registered in countries like Panama. Because of this, Hawaii
08:17can still get goods from places like East Asia using cheaper ships, but if they want
08:21something from the mainland U.S., it costs way more money. In fact, this law costs Hawaii
08:28over $1 billion every year. This law also makes it really hard for Hawaii to grow businesses
08:34because everything is so expensive. The cost of insurance is also going up. This is because
08:41the islands are hit by natural disasters like hurricanes and storms more often now. All
08:47of this adds up to making life in Hawaii even more expensive. But even despite all that,
08:54the state steadily lands high in studies on well-being. Even people who can barely
08:59afford a living are mostly happier or at least less unhappy in Hawaii than in other states.
09:06I guess the strong community support, a clean and fantastically beautiful environment, and
09:11the ability to have beach parties all year round make up for many hardships.
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