It’s time to repeal the Jones Act
It&#x27;s basically been disproven at this point that simply lowering cost does not necessarily lead to better outcomes for the country. This was basically neo-liberal orthodoxy until the mid 2010s, by which point it was clear that lowering costs by offshoring labor had hollowed out the middle class in America. Money has a multiplyer effect. Each dollar spent is received by someone who then goes on to spend a part of that dollar and so on. So if you take dollars and send them elsewhere, that multiplyer effect is dampened. Things may be cheaper, but the economy is worse overall.<p>Also, as the article itself states:<p>&gt; [The Jones act] aims to promote and maintain the American merchant marine fleet for commercial and defense purposes.<p>The act has nothing to do with making things cheaper. Any earnest proposal to repeal the Jones act should address how the goals of the act can be met in other ways.