Guam

Falkland Islands? New Caledonia… More on reddit.com

Worst thing about Guam right now is the cost of flights back to the mainland, Hawaii, and Japan. Also if you’re expecting to run your AC at 70 degrees day and night, you’re in for a shock. Otherwise, it’s a nice place since I’ve been here. More on reddit.com

It’s a weird hybrid place: Guam is one the only places where US citizens don’t pay federal tax, only local (Guam) tax. This should allow Guam to manage its own transportation, healthcare and similar. In fact though, it results in political handouts and lots of complaining about being excluded from federal tax funded programs like ObamaCare and supplemental social security. Everyone recognizes that tourism, military spending and federal handouts aren’t a great way to fund the island. However, no one is really committed to changing this. Even during the pandemic, when tourism disappeared, there was a lot of talk and even a “governors’ special assistant” appointed to diversify the economy, but nothing happened. Federal assistance (temporarily) increased, the local government declared a surplus, raises where handed out and now we are desperately hoping the tourists return this summer/fall. The military, as a stand-in for the federal government as a whole, are a convenient punching bag. However, without their money, we’d be in big trouble. Same thing with their development, we only know about a lot of these ancestral finds because the military discovers them and pays for an archeological team to conserve them. Every find in the tree roots of a construction site is something we didn’t know about before and will end up in a military funded museum at UoG. Tourists are great, but we only do the bare minimum to get them here. Tumon has flooded for years, we know how to fix it and there are multi-million dollar hotels in the area, but they have tax waiver certificates and no interest in funding flooding abatement. It was so bad a few years back, GovGuam suggested pumping the silty water into Tumon Bay, which would kill the reef, but hey that is a problem for the next batch of politicians in 2-yrs… We also hate accommodating tourists, our parks have bathrooms, but we keep them locked and unmaintained, forcing tourists to defecate in the jungle. Despite being a small place, we are just as addicted to cars as mainland America. It’s hot, so you don’t want to walk, but also we haven’t built sidewalks consistently outside of Tumon. Public transit is mostly non-existent and erratic. This is another area where GovGuam could spend money and help us with $6/gal gas, but has chosen not to. Probably five percent of the population are United Airlines global status members, jetting off for shopping in the Philippines, California or Nevada. The other ninety five percent are struggling to get by, daily. Adding to the misery, the high cost of off-island products (including fuel), poor healthcare, intergenerational (sexual) violence and meth addiction, and it can be bleak for folks who are trying to get ahead. Educational opportunities are limited and most good paying jobs are federal, off-island or part of the local patronage system. More on reddit.com

Guam is a much smaller version of Hawaii. Its economy is mostly reliant on tourism and the U.S military presence. Hawaii has those things too obviously but the economy is a little more diversified. Guam food is influenced more by Spanish and Filipino food whereas Hawaiian food is more heavily influenced by Japan and Korea. Surfing in Guam isn’t really a thing because of the coral reef that surrounds the island. More on reddit.com