Society
14 pieces
Coming Back Home
The island is not short of the things it needs — it is short of whatever turns those things into a life a family can afford. The obstacle is scale, and more than 168,000 CHamoru living stateside are the shortest road out of it.
The Invisible Raise
No one can hand the whole island a raise — wages are set by employers, budgets, and a tourism economy still finding its footing. But a dollar a family no longer owes the power company is every bit as real as a dollar earned, and lowering the cost of living is a raise Guam actually has the power to give.
The Return Trip
Guam welcomed 739,000 visitors in 2024 — a twelve-and-a-half-per-cent improvement, but still less than half its 2019 peak. The problem isn't attracting first-time visitors. It's bringing them back.
The Road Not Surrendered
Guam sits 3,800 miles from Tehran and holds the westernmost sovereign U.S. soil in the Pacific. The interceptors spent over Iran won't be restored until 2027 — precisely the window defense analysts identify as peak risk in this ocean. We didn't choose to be inside this arithmetic.
The Ladder They Pulled Up
The numbers landed in August 2025, and they landed hard. Entry-level tech employment is collapsing even as the industry grows. The traditional apprenticeship path has been dismantled. The task now is not to wait for someone to lower the ladder back down. It is to build your own.
The Toll
How a century-old maritime law became a private tax on the island America says it cannot live without
An Island at a Crossroads
Guam sits at the center of one of the most strategically significant regions on the planet — backed by the United States, adjacent to Asia, rich in military investment. And yet its residents fly to Seoul for healthcare, import seafood while surrounded by the Pacific, and pay $12 for a gallon of milk. This is the story of how it got here, and what it would take to change.
