Why Hawaii Is Now a Place Only for the Ultra-Rich

Bright Side

Hawaii is famous for its stunning beaches and tropical beauty, but living there has become nearly impossible for regular folks. The cost of homes has skyrocketed, with million-dollar price tags even on tiny houses! Rent, groceries, and everyday expenses are through the roof, making it hard for locals to stay. Many longtime residents are being pushed out as wealthy outsiders buy up land and drive up prices. Now, Hawaii is becoming a playground for the ultra-rich, while regular families struggle to make ends meet. It’s a tough reality—Hawaii is still paradise, but only if you can afford the price tag. 🌺  Credit: Exploring Alternatives / YouTube Island News / YouTube AJ+ / YouTube Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

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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