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Yes but we're not talking about that. Everyone already knows foreign shipyards are very competitive. We are talking about why domestic shipyards aren't, and the

• eru 3y ago
  The Jones act still is for the reasons I outlined. It shelters them from competition, and it also outlaws partial outsourcing, too. At a hypothetical example, consider if Thailand passed the equivalent of the Jones act but for computers. At the moment, Thailand produces a lot of hard disks. There are used all over the world, but also in Thai computers. With protectionism in place, Thailand would produce some complete computers for domestic use. But they would be just as abysmal and expensive as American ships. The overall size of the industry would likely be smaller than just the hard disk branch alone was. (This example worked better before SSD were widespread.) In the real world right now, a Thai entrepreneur can start building computers easily, because she's allowed to source parts from anywhere around the world. And Thai computer users are allowed to let foreigners service their computers, too.