The Jones Act moves industry and America’s economic prosperity

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Defence of US cabotage regulations, known as the Jones Act, from US maritime administrator Paul Jaenichen – in a nutshell, significant parts of the US maritime industry, such as its shipbuilding sector, would not have  survived had they not been wrapped in cotton wool for the best part of a century, protected from cheaper, foreign competition. For what it’s worth, The Loadstar remains unconvinced by his arguments on two counts: firstly, the increased cost of US domestic shipping ultimately gets passed onto the consumer, which implies that rather than “preserving” America’s economic prosperity it simply transfers it from one section of society to another; and secondly, it just seems so hypocritical to see the US regularly demanding other countries to open up their commercial sectors to the ownership of its corporations, while denying others a similar opportunity.