Because ships and shipping are so expensive, few companies use this method outside routes that offer no other alternatives, such as between the continental United States and Puerto Rico or Hawaii. Instead, they use land-based transport—mainly trucks and trains—to deliver goods that could have traveled by sea between the approximately 360 U.S. ports to service the 130 million people that live near our 95,000-plus miles of coasts. (Many other countries do this kind of “short-sea shipping.”)

In fact, the Congressional Research Service reports that only about 2 percent of all U.S. freight is carried by ships, and that—despite the massive growth in coastal U.S. cities since the 1960s—coastwise shipping tonnage has actually declined by roughly 44 percent over the same period. All other modes of freight transport, including international shipping, have either increased or remained steady.

“Ship American” might sound nice in theory. This is what it looks like in practice: not shipping much of anything in America at all.

[Lincicome is a very good source on how regulations create perverse incentives and (largely) unintended consequences. The Jones Act is one of those protectionist regulations that keeps on living even though everyone can see how badly it impacts the economy and infrastructure, because its protectionist veneer is tough to challenge — especially in populist times. Normally Lincicome covers this at Cato, which is preaching to the choir. Having this at The Atlantic is a step in the right direction. — Ed]