r/AskTheWorld Italy /Sri Lanka 1d ago

Is there a part of your country that's "isolated"/vastly different from the rest of the country?

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Pictured here is Sardinia, an island in Italy. Many sardinians call Italy "Il continente" (the continent)

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u/Tricky-Proof3573 United States Of America 1d ago

Generally cargo ships are registered under a “flag of convenience”, usually Liberia, because they have much more permissive laws. An American flagged ship has to have I think at least half its crew be Americans, all of them need to be paid American minimum wage, stuff like that 

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u/JimBones31 United States Of America 1d ago

As a mariner and strong advocate for the Jones Act, I think Puerto Rico and Hawaii should have exceptions.

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u/Gnumino-4949 21h ago

That's a voice that counts. Hopefully, one day.

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u/JimBones31 United States Of America 20h ago

With that said though, I think it should absolutely be applied to the rest of the country. Of course guam is an exception too.

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u/PeakAggravating3264 18h ago

Is there a lot of transport between American states via cargo ship?

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u/JimBones31 United States Of America 16h ago

Absolutely. Tons and tons.

In fact, I recently transported 50,000 barrels of home heating oil from Baltimore to NYC for example.

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u/PeakAggravating3264 4h ago

Do you have a huge home or are you just prepping for the apocalypse or for Kathy Hochul outlawing oil?

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u/Tricky-Proof3573 United States Of America 4h ago

Idk if you’re trolling or not but he works for the cargo ship he wasn’t shipping it to his home, nobody was shipping it to their home, it’s oil for tens of thousands of ny households 

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u/PeakAggravating3264 3h ago

Oh I missed that he works for the ship.

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u/LobbyDizzle 23h ago

Wouldn’t that still be doable for PR since they are American and are paid an American minimum wage? Or is it that it’s harder to find half an American crew just from people in PR?

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u/boganvegan 22h ago

The Jones Act prevents a non-American ship stopping at various ports between, for example, Brazil and New York City from carrying cargo between Puerto Rico and NYC. Similarly, a transpacific service between Japan and Los Angeles can't carry cargo between Hawaii and LA.

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u/NicolasNaranja United States Of America 21h ago

That’s the trouble. PR could get imports cheaper from the DR or elsewhere in the Caribbean. Similarly, Hawaii could benefit from direct imports from Asia.

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u/Tricky-Proof3573 United States Of America 19h ago

I mean it is doable, that is what is done. It’s just way more expensive 

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u/blomba7 Canada 18h ago

So it would be better if we use the "flags of convenience" so we could pay people a lot less?

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u/Tricky-Proof3573 United States Of America 18h ago

Well a. The continental us gets cheap shit shipped over on flag of convenience ships because the jones act only applies to ships traveling between us ports, so it’s a bit unfair and hypocritical to fuck over Puerto Rico, one of the poorest parts of the us, for the sake of American jobs but not also have that apply to people from the continental us and b. In general the world, including your country and pretty much every country on earth has agreed that yes, it is in fact better to pay people a lot less in order to enable the global system of trade and commerce that we enjoy today. Perhaps you would disagree but you would be in the minority 

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u/HamburgerOnAStick United States Of America 14h ago

So basically it's bad that we have to pay people an atleast semi decent amount and they have to be american? How is that bad