The Last Place on Earth

Beyond diversifying the base of the tourist industry, it'd be far more fruitful to diversify industry itself -- so that it doesn't just mean tourism, and beyond that, real estate speculation.

Hawaii should take advantage of its distinction of being the US's only tropical state -- and develop the state of the art lifestyle and technologies for all the other tropical and superwarm countries, most of which are mired in third world status because of their inability to overcome the conditions of too warm conditions -- that sap human energy and industriousness. They don't have to give lectures on industriousness to those living in colder climates that make them naturally disposed to overcoming those challenges.

But as we see in Iraq and a lot of those sub-Saharan and tropical climates, temperatures are so hot and oppressive, that the people don't want to even move for fear of overheating, and merely adapt to survive the day without heat stroke and exhaustion. Hawaii only has a few days of such oppressive conditions (Kona winds) but also, most days one cannot stand being exposed to the sun, sand and sea all day, even among the homeless and most impoverished. They need sheltering strategies, and suitable clothing and other adaptations of their own unique challenges that wouldn't be produced elsewhere in the US because they don't face those conditions


Essentially, Hawaii doesn't want to be competing against the rest of the US economy and industry in those respects, but would surely have a tremendous competitive advantage against all those other too warm (third-world) countries in developing and marketing the technologies for overcoming the challenges posed by unvarying too warm conditions, is Hawaii's natural niche, and not implementing those things that make sense in New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, ie., the rail, conventional air-conditioning, landfill, fossil fuels, etc.

Hawaii should be "alternative" and "innovative" by natural advantage instead of conformist, and the last to adopt whatever technologies were used successfully in the past centuries, as though that was the meaning and purpose for contemporary society and culture as manifested most familiarly by government ruled by pre-industrial unionism, which is just another form of the old tribalism.

And then people of the world would want to come and witness and participate in that as the reason for their visit, and not because Hawaii is the last place on earth to do so.