Why Oahu never faces an economic crisis

The Island of Oahu houses the entire economy of Hawaii because of the military and the federal government. Construction of houses has been continuing at a fast pace here. Almost 10,000 houses are being built presently and there will be another 4,500 homes build in the years to come for the military personnel. The Island of Oahu is the residence of almost 102,000 people working in the military. There are 18,000 direct jobs given to them and they end up spending approximately $1 billion in one year.

To add on to this, in a year, the Department of Defense spends almost $6.1 billion. The Barking Sands project requires quite an amount of expenses because of the technologies used. The number of jets has been increased and the fleet has been upgraded in Hawaii by the Navy. This results in a huge expense amount for the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyards. Over a period of one year, eight new submarines have been repositioned. Hence, we see that military makes up for 23 percent of the total economy, whereas tourism on the other hand, makes up for a little more than 30 percent!

Due to some decisions made by the higher levels of governance, Hawaii has one of the highest spending per capita ratios as compared to other states. Reports have shown that the federal government spent a whopping $14 billion in 2007! This calculates an equivalent $235 per person. This mainly benefits the large projects the government has undertaken like transportation, the University of Hawaii, as well as the new telescopes set up at the summit of Mauna Kea. As a result, the Island of Oahu is benefiting a lot, and is not getting sucked into the economic tumult. Thus, over the previous years, the economy of the place has remained fairly stable, while the visitor economy has gone down to 15 to 20 percent.