"95% of container ships are now going around the Southern Tip of Africa"

Re:"95% of container ships are now going around the Southern... by bluGill on Monday January 08, 2024 @03:53PM (#38917931)

Presumably most ships owners would look and discover that the US navy is the largest in the world and thus switch their flags to the US - they would then pay taxes to the US (and have to deal with a lot of other US laws that they don't now). Either that or they would pay a lot more insurance. Ships going to Europe might switch to either UK or France for flags (again paying respective taxes and laws) - both are reasonably powerful in their area, though not on US level. China's navy is up and coming and so may be worth looking at for a flag as well.

Note that the budget of the country in question is what is really being talked about, and not the entire GDP of the country. It is possible for the US navy to save money while costing the average US citizen money.

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Re:"95% of container ships are now going around the Southern... by ramesh31 on Monday January 08, 2024 @05:04PM (#38918868)

>Presumably most ships owners would look and discover that the US navy is the largest in the world and thus switch their flags to the US - they would then pay taxes to the US (and have to deal with a lot of other US laws that they don't now). Either that or they would pay a lot more insurance.

You've just described mercantillism. Post Bretton-Woods is the first time in centuries the world hasn't worked that way. The dream of free trade and globalism was that everyone had equal protection on the seas. I fear you're correct that we're returning to a darker time where autarky reigns and trade is restricted to essentials.

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Re:"95% of container ships are now going around the Southern... by pfdietz on Monday January 08, 2024 @07:01PM (#38920359)

Oh, the post-Pax Americana world situation is going to be a lot darker than that. Multilateral nuclear proliferation, here we come!

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