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10. Build the supply chain. A shipyard is for assem- ef? ciencies. Be ruthless but predictable in the awarding and bly. We need to build a rugged material and equipment sup- removing of subsidies. Think in terms of CAFE ratings and ply chain. That is a chicken and egg issue and can only be not in terms of farm subsidies. accomplished when a huge investment is made in U.S. ship construction. This is not ‘hundreds of millions’ rather the in- Meanwhile, all of this needs to be explained to the public. vestment needs to be in the tens of billions. Increases in Kings Point and state maritime academy funding 11. In workforce development, the most ef? cient invest- cannot solve the problem. This needs to be a grassroots effort, ment is social. You need people to understand and appreciate an effort to bridge the light years between a young person in the industry before you can invest in hardware. Spend money random locations around the country and their awareness of on social programs ? rst. Meanwhile any maritime job that re- the maritime industry in general and the many educational and quires drug testing and provides useless positives for mari- job opportunities within. We have a great opportunity to in- juana use is an automatic non-starter. We need useful weed crease shipbuilding and maritime industry visibility by build- testing or young people will not sign on. ing national level exposition centers as suggested in the SL- 12. Subsidies and trade protection. All of the above can in- 7EXPO effort; Let’s spend our money there ? rst. It is cheaper crease shipbuilding viability in the U.S. However, it still takes than investing in hardware, and if we cannot ? nd and attract humans, and in the U.S., human workers tend to be more ex- the young people to fuel the industry’s future, why bother pensive, which means that the U.S. shipbuilding industry will wasting money on hardware?

always operate at an international disadvantage. This can be dealt with through some level of subsidy or trade protection, but this needs to be carefully applied. The subsidy needs to be

For every column I write, MREN has agreed to make a tied to performance improvements in the industry over time. small contribution to an organization of my choice. For

Simple construction cost differential subsidies will not work this column I select SL7EXPO. Visit www.linkedin.com/ company/sl7expo for more information.

because humans will focus on maximizing subsidies and, like occurs in Navy shipbuilding, it will not increase production

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