The Jones Act is Protectionist Bullshit, Which Always does Real Harm to Real People

    The Jones Act is some protectionist bullshit from 1920. The stupid law requires maritime commerce between US ports, or intra-national shipping, to be carried out by US built and flagged vessels crewed by US citizens and permanent residents, or pay high tariffs. As a result, intra-national shipping is expensive and inefficient, resulting in higher prices for consumers. The justification, beyond handouts for politically connected businessmen, for the Jones Act is to ensure that the US has domestic ship yards, ships, and crews should a war that interrupts international shipping break out. This is a much less significant worry than in 1920: the prospect of a global conventional war reaching US shores is slight, the US has dozens of allies to rely on, and could just buy ships with international crews should they be needed. The cost of the Jones Act relative to its fuzzy supposed benefits is immense.

     Each of the main requirements of the Jones Act undermines the supposed usefulness of the others. The requirement that the ships be expensively built in the US means fewer US flagged ships and therefore fewer US crews. The requirement that the ships be expensively US flagged means fewer US built ships and fewer US crews. The requirement that the ships be expensively crewed by US citizens and permanent residents means fewer US built and flagged ships. In this way, the Jones Act illustrates the damaging inefficiency of trade barriers generally.

     Because of the increased cost due to the Jones Act, intra-national shipping companies are loath to build new ships and rather push aging ships to their limits, to the detriment of efficiency and safety of their crews. The result is slower, smaller, less fuel efficient, and less technologically advanced ships. The ships would suck in war anyway. Alexis Madrigal has a great podcast series called “Containers” about shipping in general and the huge impact of standardized shipping containers in particular. Episode 5 is about the Jones Act, and the fateful journey of a US ship bound for Puerto Rico from Florida that never made it.

     This highlights perhaps the most damaging aspect of the Jones Act. For the continental US, it means greater use of trains and trucks rather than more opportunities for crews and shipping companies. Puerto Rico has no other practical option for receiving goods from the mainland. The result is much higher prices for Puerto Rico’s on average poorer residents, to the relative benefit of well-off owners of US shipping capital. The real human cost of the Jones Act has been on vivid display after Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria. Aid and supplies from the mainland have to use small, slow US ships to take it to Puerto Rico at high cost, adding unnecessarily to Puerto Rico’s human misery. 

     It took Trump a week to waive the Jones Act for shipping to Puerto Rico, and he only waived it after significant backlash and only for 10 days. The delay was partly politics as the Jones Act is protectionist bullshit, which he loves, and partly that Trump is a bigot who doesn’t care about brown people, even if they are American citizens. The Jones Act only puts Americans first if you don’t count Puerto Ricans, who, again, are American citizens.



And he's a news article with numbers and studies/economists cited/quoted.