Tim Wildauer 🦬

The problem with this @DominicJPino is you are focusing the blame on the wrong thing. It is not the Jones Act that caused the decline in US shipbuilding since World War Two. Instead, it is the Jones Act that has kept that little vestige that is left. If you want to be accurate, here are the top 10 reasons that US shipping and shipbuilding have declined: 1️⃣Ships Sales Act of 1946 provides Allied merchant fleets with 1113 surplus ships from the US when we could have used the opportunity to jam our shipyards with orders. 2⃣The US assists Liberia in the creation of a ship registry akin to Panama. The latter was used to avoid Neutrality Laws and ship aid - particularly 100 octane gas - to the UK. Liberia, as one of the few independent states in Africa needed economic support. 3️⃣Marshall Plan of 1949 provides loans to counties to rebuild critical infrastructure, including shipyards. Many of which adopt the pre-fabrication method of the US 4⃣US set up the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1949 (now Military Sealift Command) to handle sealift for the Dept of Defense, thereby reducing its level of dependency on the US merchant marine. 5⃣New cargo handling technologies are introduced, but a few - LASH, SeaBee, Roll-on/Roll-off - are not commercially viable and lead to the demise of some key shipping companies. 6️⃣ Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 leads to the creation of the Interstate Highway System. This reduces the need for coastal (cabotage) shipping as cargo shifts to trucks. 7⃣The introduction of DC8 and 707 in 1958 shifted the movement of people from rail and ship to plane. This opened up cargo capacity on the nation's rail system. 8⃣Colonial Pipeline 1962 saw a massive reduction in the number of product tankers needed from the Gulf of Mexico to the US East Coast 9⃣Vietnam War demonstrated the utility of the containership (see The Box) but the failure to invest a new program to sponsor ship construction until the MMA 1970, allowed Europe and Japan - using some of those protectionist methods you oppose - to surpass the US. 🔟The 1980s saw the end of construction differentials under the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. This witnessed the end of ship construction for ships in the international trade as the US Navy wanted to ship construction of their 600-ship Navy exclusively into private yards, but the end of the Cold War saw US yards lose not just commercial, but also military business. You will note that the Jones Act does not make the list, because it actually preserves the vestiges of US shipbuilding. I would also note that when the US decided in the 1980s to divest itself of commercial shipbuilding, at the time Europe, Japan and Korea built the overwhelming majority of the world's ships. In 2024, China builds 51% with expectations that 2025, that number rose to 63%.