Public, Private Money Drives Innovation in Naval Commerce

Photo credit: Panama Canal
History Museum

A recent article in the Washington Post reports federal and local governments are pouring billions of dollars into ports to help them accommodate the new "post-Panamax" container ships.

A global public-private alliance is expanding the Panama canal to allow larger container ships to pass through. This will permit these massive ships arriving from Asia to call on ports on the US East Coast. At the moment, they dock on the West Coast and the cargo is shipped overland by road and rail.

This raises a question: if this commerce produces so much wealth, why should governments spend taxpayer money on these projects? Couldn't we just let the market take care of it? And if the market won't pay for it, is it something that taxpayers should pay for anyway?

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