[chimeracoder]

> Finally, I think Puerto Rico itself also suffers from an artificial handicap with respect to the Jones Act.

The Jones Act has prevented Puerto Rico from ever building a solid, stable economy of its own. It's the reason Puerto Rico's economy was in shambles long before Hurricane Maria hit. As long as the Jones Act is in place, Puerto Rico doesn't have an economic future.

They've experienced a massive brain drain over the last few decades, because everyone on the island can relocate to the mainland, where everything is cheaper (due to the Jones Act) and there are more lucrative jobs. This creates a vicious cycle which is still ongoing.

[Vivtek]

The economic problems of Puerto Rico go way beyond the Jones Act. As long as your item is lightweight, you can turn a reasonable profit here - all the Viagra made for the North American market is made here, and other pharma companies have strong representations. CooperVision sells something like 3 billion pairs of contact lenses a year, made in their plant in Juana Diaz.

So it's a disadvantage - and one that has absolutely no relevance to the issues of the twenty-first century and that should long since have been retired (and arguably never passed, or had exemptions made for American islands) - but it's not a showstopper.

No, the real bar to a solid, stable local economy has simply been the ready availability of mainland capital. Anything you see the hedge funds doing in the Midwest was prototyped here first. The entire development strategy of offering tax rebates to relocate manufacturing was invented by Puerto Rico - the idea was that those manufacturing centers would lead to local management and a robust secondary technical and supply economy. This never happened - the mainland companies brought their own managers and continued buying from their established suppliers on the mainland. Puerto Rico was a convenient source of well-trained but very inexpensive labor.

There's a lot of detail. I can't claim to have done more than scratched the surface. But mere abolition of the Jones Act wouldn't be enough, sadly. Not that it will happen regardless.

[chimeracoder]

> But mere abolition of the Jones Act wouldn't be enough, sadly.

I never said that the abolition of the Jones Act would be sufficient. But I am saying it's necessary; as long as the Jones Act is in full force, Puerto Rico has no hope at a stable economic future.

[Vivtek]

This is true, you didn't say that and I apologize. But I live here in Puerto Rico, and the notion that our stable economic future has to be a handout from the United States rankles a bit.

After all, Hawaii's economic stability doesn't seem to be questioned very often, and they're even more susceptible to Jones Act problems than we are - after all, the Act only regulates shipping between American ports. Plenty of non-American ports just hours away by ship. We don't have to ship everything by barge on the four American-owned, American-flagged, American-built, and American-crewed shipping lines that service the island, two of which are embroiled in a price-fixing lawsuit and the third of which somehow managed to go bankrupt.

[chimeracoder]

> But I live here in Puerto Rico, and the notion that our stable economic future has to be a handout from the United States rankles a bit.

I'm not sure what you're referring to as a "handout". The Jones Act itself is, if anything, outright theft by the federal government. Eliminating it isn't a handout.

I guess it's uncomfortable to say that the fate of Puerto Rico is in the hands of the US government, but on the other hand... that's exactly what colonialism is. The US has colonized and pillaged Puerto Rico for decades, and it's an ugly truth, yes, but it's the truth nevertheless. As long as that systemic exploitation continues, it doesn't really matter what Puerto Rico itself does.

> After all, Hawaii's economic stability doesn't seem to be questioned very often, and they're even more susceptible to Jones Act problems than we are

Well, that's not true - Hawaii suffers immensely from the Jones Act as well, and if you talk to people from Hawaii (people who've grown up there and spent their entire lives there, not transplants), they'll be able to tell you these Jones Act horror stories firsthand. Hawaii is overall in a better state that Puerto Rico, yes, but that's due to other factors which mitigate the effects of the Jones Act; it doesn't mean the Jones Act isn't still a crushing burden for them.