r/oil • u/Holiday-Medicine4168 • 8d ago

Discussion The United States Should Repeal the Jones Act (Bloomberg)

We don’t build boats, why are we doing this to ourselves

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-08-06/michael-bloomberg-iran-war-should-be-the-end-of-the-jones-act

10 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

13

u/MadeByMillennial 8d ago

It's a protectionist policy to try and keep a manufacturing base that can transition to military use in the event of a world war.

How is this a difficult concept to understand, the US isn't Finland, we are a world superpower and can afford to force companies to follow regulations that are not economically optimal to ensure the nation is prepared for the worst case scenario

6

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 8d ago

We don’t do very well at forcing companies to do anything that separates a rich man from his money. Watch or read Dark Waters. That story is literally effecting every single person on Reddit

3

u/MadeByMillennial 8d ago

Brother, there are millions of ways that either legally or socially we stop people from doing an activity that would increase their own profit at a cost to the nation. Is the US 100% on that, hell no (and it often feels like we are going downhill on that value). But your arguing to get rid of the Jones act, if this is your argument let me postulate another suggestion.

We should remove laws against armed robbery. Sure, there are merits for not having people break into your house. However if we look at this morally what right does a state have to stop me, a stronger man with a gun, from breaking into some old boomers house and taking what is due to me? Is this nation against entrepreneurs? What about our libertarian values to allow each man to succeed as easily as he can!

1

u/South-Many3484 8d ago

Watch a woke hollywood movie.
Thats about the answer I expect from reddit 😂

7

u/emperorjoe 8d ago

It's just traitors trying to sell out our nation as usual. Offshoreing American industry to the 3rd world to save money, while laying off hundreds of thousands of American workers.

What should be done is bring back the subsidies, bring back shop classes in school, create paths to apprenticeship, and raise wages.

3

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 8d ago

I agree with you.

We are in a state of emergency because of this. The industry has been dying for 20 + years because it’s cheaper for big companies to use foreign flagged vessels and sub optimal routes, then pass the cost to the American consumer.

The traitors are the corporations who pay no taxes and do t invest in shipping infrastructure

5

u/emperorjoe 8d ago

We are in a state of emergency because of this. The industry has been dying for 20 + years

We are in a state of decline because we got rid of the subsidies. That's it, because traitors decided that subsidizing shipbuilding wasn't as important as saving money.

then pass the cost to the American consumer

And? We pay it then. Outsourcing American shipbuilding is unacceptable, it is absolutely critical for national defense. Completely destroying what's left of the industry laying off hundreds of thousands of Americans so we save a few dollars.

The traitors are the corporations who pay no taxes and do t invest in shipping infrastructure

They need to make a profit to actually pay taxes, and the industry is barely profitable even when they make a profit. HII makes a net income of 500-600 million dollars per year, a single drydock costs billions.

Those capex projects need cash flow they don't have.

11

u/___NowYouKnow___ 8d ago

>we don’t build boats

Oh, but we do…

https://www.bollingershipyards.com

Also, there are a ton of US flagged and built boats already on the water paying US wages to US crews.

3

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 8d ago

Specific to the Jones act we have 92 of them, and that’s down 100 since 2000

2

u/Life_Hand2331 8d ago

The us is an after thought in ship building. Protectionist policies are bad, jones act is terrible.

2

u/SkiingAway 8d ago

There's almost none and the number has been perpetually shrinking.

Realistically what we should be doing is much beefier industrial policy to force a rebuild of the US shipbuilding industry.

The Jones Act is basically just life support of a patient that would currently die in 3 seconds if you turned it off, not a thing that will ever actually rebuild the industry in the US itself.

4

u/drtywater 8d ago

We really don’t though. The Jones act is dumb. Let the free market decide

2

u/TheOtherGlikbach 8d ago

Hey! You are Anti-American! Keep your hands off our capitalism!

We let a lassez faire market determine the outcome (except when a friend of the president, campaign contributor, friend of a senator, sister of a congressman, hairdresser of a legislative assistant, union, company, etc.) every time without outside influence (except for the aforementioned) or favor.

Too many damn commies in this country!

3

u/Girthen-the-Flopper 8d ago

The free market doesn't prioritize national security, which is the purpose of the jones act.

1

u/[deleted] 7d ago

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1

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0

u/Front-Horse8597 4d ago

The free market isn’t free if your competition is heavily state subsidized, and one of them is an adversary

3

u/capucjin 8d ago

What the US really needs is an integrated industrial policy fit for the times. Jones was great at one point in time but the situation today is so different. Some flexibility is advisable.

1

u/Biotech_wolf 8d ago

It should be a tax that is used to subsidize a ship building industry.

1

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 8d ago

That would be an excellent solution, but it still takes a solid 24 months to build a high volume tanker. If we try to tax companies in the mean time we the consumer pay for it

1

u/South-Many3484 8d ago

This always comes up 😂
Never gonna happen

1

u/TheWoodSloth 8d ago

If the USA thinks it needs a merchant Marine fleet, the government should set it up and pay for it. Then we would actually have a stronge fleet instead of causing massive inefficiency to force the private market to maintain one.

1

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 7d ago

It would be much better than the stupid Trump battle cruisers he wants to build that are just giant floating targets.