4 ms·

The Jones Act can be broken into 3 parts: 1. transported on ships that are built We want to maintain domestic shipyard capacity and not have the only shipya

The Jones Act can be broken into 3 parts: 1. transported on ships that are built We want to maintain domestic shipyard capacity and not have the only shipyards be those that are government contractors. Why? Imagine if we are ever in a situation where we need Liberty Ships again. 2. transported on ships that are owned, We want to both protect domestic owners as well as be able to hold them accountable if they screw up. You sometimes hear stories about ships abandoned by their owners and the crew forced to stay on the vessel. Or abandoned cargo such as the fertilizer that caused the Beirut blast. We want to minimize those situations. 3. transported on ships that are operated We want the people working the ships to be invested in our country and we want to maintain a population with these skills. Why? In the event of a Liberty Ship situation, you need people to crew them. But also accountability, who is more likely to report the captain ordering waste oil to be dumped overboard: A US citizen who knows the rules or a sailor from Indonesia whose passport is being held by the captain? There is a large amount of intercostal and waterway shipping that takes place in the US, grain down the Mississippi, steel on the Great Lakes. Do we want that to be open to Iranian or North Korean ships? Lastly, the Jones Act only applies to goods shipped between US ports. So if Hawaii is buying Russian gas from Russia, as long as the ship goes from Russia to Hawaii the Jones Act doesn't apply.

adolph 5y ago
I can see how it is important for any nation to maintain strategic capabilities in many domains. Since the US is largely a single-continent nation, maintaining a strategic shipping capacity seems less important than other things, but arguably has a greater than zero significance. The Jones Act disadvantages non-shipping parts of the economy in order to prop up some otherwise unviable operations. In the case of Hawaii, this is especially terrible since US sources of goods and material might be competitive with Russia or elsewhere except for the transportation. The result "costs Hawaii $1.2 billion annually, including 9,100 fewer jobs and $148 million in unrealized tax revenues." [0] Ship ownership has nothing to do with port safety and a Lebanese Jones Act equivalent would not have changed anything in Beirut since it was international shipping impounded by Lebanon, offloaded and improperly stored in the port for many years. [1] 0. https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/jonesact/ https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/jonesact/ 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion
- themaninthedark 5y ago
  A single continent is another way of saying an island, and while shipping via air is routine now, ocean shipping is by and large the way we move goods in and out of our country. You can see how much it is by looking at how the ports are backed up right now. Correct the Beirut explosion was cause by international shipping not domestic but my argument was that if you do not have safeguards then you will have more chances of something like that happening. Small backwater and intercostal ports in the US might not have the resources to deal with abandoned ships and cargo in the way that out international ports do.
  - adolph 5y ago
    Your mention of air shipping and the difference between domestic and international ports is well taken. As I understand it, foreign aircraft operators are likewise prohibited from inter-domestic flights. Maybe it all makes sense in a Chesterton's fence sort of way.

adolph 5y ago

I can see how it is important for any nation to maintain strategic capabilities in many domains. Since the US is largely a single-continent nation, maintaining a strategic shipping capacity seems less important than other things, but arguably has a greater than zero significance. The Jones Act disadvantages non-shipping parts of the economy in order to prop up some otherwise unviable operations. In the case of Hawaii, this is especially terrible since US sources of goods and material might be competitive with Russia or elsewhere except for the transportation. The result "costs Hawaii $1.2 billion annually, including 9,100 fewer jobs and $148 million in unrealized tax revenues." [0] Ship ownership has nothing to do with port safety and a Lebanese Jones Act equivalent would not have changed anything in Beirut since it was international shipping impounded by Lebanon, offloaded and improperly stored in the port for many years. [1] 0. https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/jonesact/ https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/jonesact/ 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion

themaninthedark 5y ago
A single continent is another way of saying an island, and while shipping via air is routine now, ocean shipping is by and large the way we move goods in and out of our country. You can see how much it is by looking at how the ports are backed up right now. Correct the Beirut explosion was cause by international shipping not domestic but my argument was that if you do not have safeguards then you will have more chances of something like that happening. Small backwater and intercostal ports in the US might not have the resources to deal with abandoned ships and cargo in the way that out international ports do.
- adolph 5y ago
  Your mention of air shipping and the difference between domestic and international ports is well taken. As I understand it, foreign aircraft operators are likewise prohibited from inter-domestic flights. Maybe it all makes sense in a Chesterton's fence sort of way.