Question

Analyze the Jones Act and international ownership of ships’ impact on American maritime security.

Answer 1

The Jones Act is crucial for American national security and self reliance. It provides employment to a large section of the American population and provide huge revenue for the American government, to be furthur invested in improving national secirity. However, the major purpose of the act is to make maritime a domestically run and government monitored affair. This ensures that it runs according to the American laws and protocols laid down by the US government are strictly followed. This would not be possible if outside operators were allowed to run the maritime business. Further, it enables the government to save on monitoring costs to check corruption or flouting of laws as the government itself is the governing body. In the absence of the act, illegal activity may occur and it would be a huge drain on the government exchequer to continuously monitor the functioning of the maritime operations.