In our previous commentary we referred to our Vol. XVIII, Art. 5 commentary. Back then – on January 12th of 2009 – we wrote:

“Job creation is the very idea we’ve been promoting. We’ve been recommending the revitalizing of about 100 of our shipyards, as we did during World War II, and at about $ 100 million per facility ($ 10 billion) the cost would be much less than the proposed $ 700 billion to $ 1 trillion stimulus package advocated by the incoming administration. Mr. Obama’s advisors estimate that some 3.5 million to 4 million jobs would be created as a result of the stimulus package, but that number is a far cry from the 50 million jobs generated by the shipbuilding program we’ve described.

“At the tail end of our Vol. XVII, Art. 30 commentary we wrote about the number of vessels our 50 million shipbuilders would be building, the positive effect that 50 million weekly paychecks would have on our economy, and the effect that thousands of U.S.-owned and operated container ships would have on world-wide trade …”

Let’s take another look at what we wrote in Vol. XVII, Art. 30 – back on December 8th, 2008.

“Restoration and revision of 100 U.S. shipyards, at an average cost of $ 100 million per facility, would cost about $ 10 billion. Paying 30,000 U.S. workers in each of these yards to build our patented container ships in these 100 yards would cost – at $ 100,000 annually per worker – another $ 300 billion.

“Each of these yards could easily punch out at least two dozen of these unsophisticated, and duplicated, vessels in the course of a year. Those 2,400 vessels – at an overly generous $ 100 million per vessel – would cost $ 240 billion. So for approximately $ 550 billion we could end, for all time, the financial mismanagement that is threatening this nation’s very survival.

“Let’s look at that $ 550 billion as a “cause”. Here’s what the “effect” would be.

“First of all, we’d be creating 30,000 jobs in each of the 100 shipyards we set up. That’s 3 million purposeful jobs right there. And haven’t economists determined that each shipyard worker requires the support of 16 offsite workers? That brings the total number of created jobs to more than 50 million – and can you imagine the dramatic “effect” 50 million weekly paychecks will have on our country’s heretofore waning buying power?

“But wait. There’s more. Each of those 2,400 container ships will be purchased by U.S. maritime interests – for at least the $ 100 million spent to build them – and each of those U.S.-owned vessels will generate handsome profits every year for U.S. interests who own, operate, and utilize them.”

[50 million jobs – 2,400 Jones Act ships every year, owned and crewed by Americans – delivering 30, 40 or 50 million TEUs to bustling U.S. ports annually – is that the “multiplier effect”, or what?]