Hacker News Reader

Comment by rtp4me | Hacker News Reader

Yes, and I think this is the core motivation behind the Trump messaging - bring it back to the US if possible. In fact, he wants to bring back commercial and maritime ship building back[1]. Pretty cool! Hopefully this will employ lots of people.

[1] https://news.usni.org/2025/03/05/trumps-make-shipbuilding-gr...

View on HN

“Back” is in the mid 1800’s, you mean?

Or “back” as in when we built astonishingly expensive liberty ships for a large fraction of our GDP in WW2?

Because since the move to steel ships, there’s never been a time the US has been good at building ships.

Brian Potter goes into great detail on this [0], it’s a great read.

[0] https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-cant-the-us-build...

see also: his attacks on the "horrible" CHIPS act [0]. If anyone think he's doing anything good for anyone but billionaires, contact me. I've got some trump coin to sell you.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/technology/trump-wants-kill-527-bill...

Talk is cheap, as they say. It's one thing to want something to happen, it's entirely another to actually make it so.

Generally disassembling the machinery of state and starting trade wars is not an effective way to achieve your policy objectives unless your policy objective is economic and social chaos.

Shame it's being bungled with flip flops for nothing in return. Nor any achievable commitments which business can plan for or count on.

"Back" as in undermining EV manufacturing? And non-fossil power generation?

"Back" as in massively increasing input costs?

"Back" as in alienating close allies who are a large part of our customer base?

"Back" as in repeatedly disrupting the supply chain by flip-flopping on tariffs without a clear plan?

"Back" as in undermining research across the board?

The current policy will not employ lots of people. It will have lots of people out of work fairly soon, if we continue on the current path. It will diminish our industrial base further, and reset our manufacturing skills to the 80s or earlier. But hey, at least toy manufacturers are hiring, that's a really important industry.

Setting aside any questions about intentions, the effects of the current policies are hugely deleterious.

He is gonna import raw materials from where ? Currently he started trade war with all of his allies ?

Well, no matter what he wants, there's a reason China has 5-10 year plans and not 2 week ones.

This is Chinas greatest strength and their greatest weakness. They can actually commit to policy positions when they're effective, but they also commit to policy positions when they're not effective.

The US makes 5 commercial ships per year. China makes 1,700.

https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/containers/us-wakes-up-to-...

At the same time, he's ripping up the CHIPS act. It's the duality of Trump: he wants to bring manufacturing back, except when he doesn't.

Words and desires are easy. Crafting, marketing and enacting policy to achieve the goals set by your words and desires is difficult. The world is complex and reacts in complex ways, but try to say that to a Trump voter and get called a disconnected elitist.

And is the effort to deport as many Mexican skilled tradesmen and manual laborers as possible the part of this grand plan?

Ship building is non existent in this country because of the protectionist jones act. Protectionism backfires every time.

Gonna build boats with steel and aluminium tariffs at 50% or more? Good luck with that.

This isn't something you turn around in a few years by adding tariffs, it's a long term strategy that requires high investments and tariffs. Like the chip act, but Biden did that so that cant happen either.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com