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Brian McGlinchey's avatar

It's difficult to keep a critique of the Jones Act to a moderate length, because it's bad in so many ways. Here's some extras that didn't make the final cut:

--To dodge inflated Jones Act shipping rates, Hawaiian cattle producers have shipped cows to Canada and then transported them by road into the United States, or even *flown* them to the USA Source: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/554046425

--Per the Cato Institute study, Maryland and Virginia obtain rock salt "from distant Chile instead of domestically, despite the United States being the world's largest producer"

--If you want to fully appreciate the red tape surrounding requirements that Jones Act ships are made of American materials, check out this letter from the Coast Guard to a firm seeking to ensure its vessel will be Jones Act-compliant: https://www.winston.com/images/content/8/8/v2/88110/akertankers.pdf

--19th century economist Henry George said "“What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.”