Centuries of U.S. cabotage laws have not only caused high prices and a host of unintended (occasionally ridiculous) consequences, but also presided over (if not caused) the steady decline of American shipbuilding competitiveness and the embarrassing degradation of the merchant marine fleet. As a result, cabotage laws have undermined the very national security objectives they were supposed to support. But instead of reforming these policies to account for radical changes in the U.S. industry and global manufacturing supply chains since the 1700s(!), Congress and the administrative state have doubled down on an increasingly uncompetitive industry, due in large part to the immense resources that domestic shipyards, unions and shipowners devote to lobbying and P.R. (instead of productive things like research and development, capital expenditures, or skills upgrading). Even today, the suggested solution to our maritime problems is to … further expand U.S. cabotage laws. Sigh.