> The problem is, the Jones Act has harmed our shipbuilding capacity as well. According to the artcle our ship building capacity is 1% of China's and US built ships cost 6-8 times as much. That's not helpful.

So better have ship building capacity at 0% of China's and it be impossible to buy US built ships at any cost?

That, or make it easier to start up domestic shipbuilders.

In a vacuum, the Jones Act should be encouraging the construction of new shipyards and/or freight rail infrastructure. That neither seems to have happened suggests that other barriers exist, and those barriers need addressed, Jones Act or no.

U.S. built things costing 6-8 times as much as Chinese built things is not specific to shipbuilding.

Sure, my point is that there's not no good reason to want to protect US ship-building capacity, not that the Jones Act doesn't suck, which AFAIK it does.