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BY PANOS PREVEDOUROS PHD – This is a very informative article written by Michael Hansen, Hawaii Shippers Council.
Debate in The U.S. over the Jones Act is very lively these days. For example, on April 25th, Mark Perry, a University of Michigan-Flint business professor wrote: Want energy independence? Waive the Jones Act.
To which a pro-Jones Act shippers lobby quickly responded: Missing the mark on the Jones Act.
In my opinion, the Jones Act, hurts all U.S. island and non-contiguous regions.
At a minimum, non-contiguous U.S. states and territories, and the LNG trade must be exempted from Jones Act immediately!
There he goes again. Dr. Panos should stick to civil engineering, because he is a bad liar. He would have us believe that he is interested in the little guy (the working men and women of Hawaii and America) but in reality, Panos is secretly advocating on behalf of international conglomerates like Walmart and Chevron. Panos neglects to mention that The Jones Act protects the American Maritime industry, the American Merchant Marine and thousands of American middle class jobs. The US Navy and our nation’s defense is highly dependent on our highly trained American Merchant Marine for crewing military sealift ships in times of war and national emergencies. Panos neglects to mention that our competitors (like China, Russia, India and his homeland, Greece) all have their versions of The Jones Act to protect their respective merchant marines and middle class. Panos neglects to inform us that without The Jones Act, all of these middle class jobs would be offshored to China. Panos would like to see the Chinese take all of our middle class jobs. To be a good politician, one needs to be a good liar. Unfortunately, Panos does not know how to do either.
Every nations protects their shipping industry and longshoremen. We have tolerated illegal labor in our long line fishing industry in Hawaii to our detriment. Thousand of jobs lost that belong to American citizens. Panos usually finds himself on the losing side of most arguments. Lost the rail, lost the mayoral race and is totally lost on this issue. Our ports would look like refuge camps with absconders, alien over stays all at the taxpayers expense. This is a national security issue and economic safeguard. Commodities dumping would destroy the American economy. We have exported many American manufacturing jobs. Now open the borders even wider and import or labor. No, Panos. Bad idea.
For all of you who "claim" to know much, the Jones Act protects our waters in many ways. This place would not be what it is without the jones Act in place. NO to China and NO to dumping rubbish in our waters by those who are not loyal to this country and this state.
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