In: Economics
What justification can today's politicians possibly have for the continued support of the 1920 Jones Act?
It states that any Martine commerce between US ports needs to take place in the ships built by Americans, and crewed by Americans or in general the permanent residents.
It prohibits any foreign-built, foreign owned or foreign flagged vessels.
The drawback of this act is that it increases the shipping cost to Hawaii, Alaska , Puerto Rico as they come under nin continental US lands.
With this law, the shipping companies are limited , meanwhile the competition outside America has outgrown. Facing little to no competition, the additional rise in cost is transferred to American consumers.
Politicians justify this act mainly due to lobbying groups of American Maritime partnership. They portray a glossy picture of the outcomes of this act which is providing half a million of jobs and around 10 billion dollars revenues per year.
But these statistics falls flat when compared and contrasted with the taxes and output lost to the economy .