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Comment by croes | Hacker News Reader

>The law requires shipping between American ports to be handled by American-built, American-flagged vessels

Sounds anti competitive and not really like a free market. China vibes.

This free market you are thinking about has never existed in the United States, except maybe during the Articles of Confederation. Article I of the constitution explicitly states that "The Congress shall have Power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;"

Irrelevant. Free market arguments don’t rely on the Constitutional as their Holy Writ. You’re doing next-word-prediction here (those who often make “free market” arguments will often market themselves as Constitutional originalists or something), not logical reasoning.

"anti competitive" "not really like a free market" "China vibes."

Logical reasoning suggests that the author believes that the Jones Act is un-American. I'm not stating my personal opinion on the Jones Act itself but pointing out that the regulation of international and interstate commerce is, by definition, as American as it gets. It was uncontroversial back then and it is uncontroversial now. The Congress can pass these laws. There aren't a whole lot of things that are spelled out in the unamended constitution, but this is one of them. Whether they should maintain this particular law is a totally different issue.

If you want some entertainment, look up the Jones Act fleet. I believe the biggest and most modern vessel in it is actually a foreign vessel that the US government seized from criminals and auctioned off.

In jan 2022, there were only 99 ships merchant ships eligible under the Jones Act, under a quarter of them are container ships. Over half are tanker ships. Then we have a few general goods ships, and a few roll-on roll-off ships. That is it!

Also the jones act not only requires the vessel to be US Flagged, but it must also be wholely owned by citizens of the united states, and either be US built or one of the following exceptions:

(i) was captured in war by citizens of the United States and lawfully condemned as prize;

(ii)was adjudged to be forfeited for a breach of the laws of the United States; or

(iii)qualifies as a wrecked vessel under section 12107 of this title;

The net result is that nearly half the US Flagged merchant fleet is not even Jones Act Eligible. Which seems pretty absurd.

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