What do you think of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act?
/r/IdeologyPolls/comments/xlmc10/what_do_you_think_of_the_merchant_marine_act_of/
Related Posts
Oil, gas and mining
What do you think of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act?
3 Comments
The Jones Act is badly implemented industrial policy that creates large inefficiencies in parts of the economy and its costs are unfairly allocated. Even if the goals of the law were in the nation’s interest, its very badly implemented and is a terrible way to accomplish these goals.
At a minimum, The Jones Act should be rewritten as a direct subsidy to US shipping that includes necessary tax increases to pay for its subsidies. If advocates for the subsidies can’t muster enough support to make it revenue neutral, the law should be repealed in full.
The anti article covers the law’s issues well, but I’ll add two very concrete examples of the harm it is causing right now.
1. In New England we pay a bunch extra for natural gas in the winter because we don’t have enough pipeline capacity from the mid-Atlantic and The Jones Acts makes it illegal to ship relatively inexpensive US LNG to New England (there are no US built LNG tankers). Instead we can only get our needed LNG supplies by importing from foreign countries at much higher prices. [https://www.econlib.org/jones-act-a-great-protectionist-success/](https://www.econlib.org/jones-act-a-great-protectionist-success/)
2. The Jones Act makes off-shore wind projects logically more complicated and more expensive. [https://www.cato.org/blog/jones-act-adds-costs-complications-offshore-wind-energy](https://www.cato.org/blog/jones-act-adds-costs-complications-offshore-wind-energy)
The Jones Act keeps Puerto Rico in poverty and the entire idea of a civilian merchant marine is obsolete. Kill it with fire.
We learned a lesson in WWII that cannot be forgotten. We need a strong merchant marine. Relying on China is not a viable plan.
The Jones Act currently is the only real subsidy for merchant marine. If we eliminate the Jones Act we will have to spend a LOT more to ensure a strong merchant marine. Many sectors see this as OK as the money will shift from transportation costs to taxes.