I have fewer than 1 friend in the World. That's right. Everybody disses me for making bad videos. I think they are perfect though. Who is right? My dissers or me? Which side are you on, dear ja
‘The government killed a ton of people in a fire including children Luckily they managed to save 3 children from the definitely suicidal cult that was definitely not not planning to do that’
The worst part of this is that it would probably cost less and be more efficient to take that fish to Vancouver, BC, load it on a reefer car on an actual train, and send it across Canada by rail. Reefer rail cars are a lot cheaper to operate and are more environmentally friendly than reefer trucks or ships, and the fish would get to Maine within a week.
I am so sure that if it could be any cheaper they would do it. If they are happy to spend a shitfuckton of fuel to send fish across half a whole shit of a continent it must mean they are saving at least 50c doing so. ...but this was my first doubt as well. Why the fuck not?
That would be way less efficient. Trains carry a tiny amount of cargo compared to boats. Look at Israel's failed plan to build a railway from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea to compete with the Suez Canal. Even a huge modern rail line can only transport a fraction of the containers that a few container ships can.
Missing a couple details to the issue. Although an inefficient way of doing logistics, Customs has previously approved other "railways" to do the same thing for other companies. Customs was aware when they built it, and now are singling them out. After reading more on a few maritime sites, besides fish, it also smells like the company missed an annual political donation to someone.
Well they said it wasn't registered. Now since it's being registered in Canada I don't see why in principle Canada would take issue registering it. Yes it's stupid but why would that matter. Yes it's rule bending but it's American rule bending. It's not Canada's job to enforce American tariffs
@@sparkzbarca That's my hunch. I don't believe anyone would give a shit if they saw what you were doing was "a scam loophole to get around the system" that's not their problem. That's following the letter of the law and the details isn't their job. Their job however does include following the letter of the law which said you were only exempt if you registered it. They aren't politicians they don't write the rules, they just enforce them.
lmaooo they were getting fish near alaska, boated all the way around north america back up to maine? they could have literally used a legit canadian railway from alaska to maine
trains are more effiecenty than cars, but ships are far more efficient. But why not just unload at a port in Canada and take it down to maine by railroad? Or use a registered canadaian railway to travel one stop and back and use this loophole.
It seems it's cheaper to buy or rent a shoddy old ship from some east Asian country, with crew held in conditions not much better than outright slavery. BTW this is why so many politicians are defending illegal immigration, because illegal migrant workers can be easily abused and exploited, without regard to minimum wages, workplace safety, etc.
The Jones Act hurts anyone living in non-mainland USA, since it means all goods must be shipped at higher costs, which means the costs get passed on to the consumer. It costs a heck of a lot more to have something shipped from Los Angeles to Hawaii than it does to Singapore.
@@Zraknul -- Shipbuilders Germany, Finland, France and Italy (mentioned in the video) aren't exactly low wage, unsafe, third world countries, and they apparently can build ships profitably. So why can't the USA?
The US territory of Puerto Rico also has to follow this act when it comes to cargo ships. Being an island that results in extra surcharge for items on the island that range from half a billion to one billion US dollars. Exception, cruise lines and cargo airlines going to PR. are not subject to it. Aside from Alaska, the US territory of Guam and Hawaii are also subject to this act. The US Virgin Islands is exempt from this act. Funny thing is that you can see parts of PR. from the US Virgin islands.
@@ab9840 I support the Jones Act. Certain exceptions needs to be made for some territories. But in general, it helps American workers, and jobs in the country. The act is not about airlines. Just water transportation. So there's no restriction on foreign companies serving any destinations in the US, provided that they are registered for business in the USA. So it's weird to bring up airlines. Foreign cargo airlines can do the job.
Seems to me they should just transport the fish to Vancouver, then ship it via the Canadian Pacific railroad, which can carry it directly to Maine, in a fraction of the time it takes to sail down to the Panama Canal.
Even the largest rail line can only transport a tiny fraction of the cargo that a few container ships can. Shipping is cheaper and more efficient, no matter how you slice it
@@mikemartin6748 But the weird thing is that they didn't just do this loophole with a registered railine as most big ports have rail connections, just put it on for one stop and ship it back,
@Graf von Losinj Pretty sure the cringe is intentional, but otherwise your criticisms are fair. Also the number of people who think they’re smarter and more knowledgeable than the team of consultants hired by a multi-billion dollar corporation is actually insane.
I second this. Follow the exact same script and use the exact same visual resources, but redo the timing in the video and the audio recording so it's just ever so slightly different
On the subject of asinine multinational corporate shenanigans in New Brunswick, Canada, you should do an HAI on the Irving Group/Family. It would be worth six minutes of content by virtue of sheer robber baron-esq absurdity.
Yeah I think they move it to the railway, and then they move it to the USA ports. Since it travelled on the railway, it no longer needs to be using only USA ships and crew, so they save a bunch of money
No, but you are still shipping from a location in the US to a location in the US. And in case of fresh food, I think it is important because otherwise you would get into an entirely different mess of exporting and importing the food.
@@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co I know, Amy was commenting on the fact that this is an international shipment because the company ships by boat from the US to Canada and wonders why they need the train. I add that this is probably because while it might be offloaded in Canada, the destination is still an address within the USA. The fish company is still shipping in a way that makes it a domestic transport even though it passes through multiple countries (the Panama canal isn't international waters either). If shipping through a different country was enough, they would indeed not have to bother with the train, but that is not enough in this case as origin and destination are in the US. Another way would therefore have been to ship it to an address in Canada and forward it from there, but that means exporting from the US to Canada and then importing again from Canada to the US.
I was surprised to hear about New-Brunswick in a Half as Interesting video, but unsurprised to learn the mention related to shady business affairs. If you want an interesting topic for a future video, the situation in New-Brunswick with the Irvings is quite unique, with a pretty crazy amount of influence on the province. Our current premier is an ex-Irving VP. The family also is (or at least at one point, was) one of the largest landowners in the US.
I will shamelessly admit that discovering this channel was like finding a gem, lol. One of the best channel on TH-cam. The commentary is not only excellently done, but it’s interesting and leaves you laughing the entire way through. 🤣
@@demacherius1 - There isn’t enough room to have a ramp at the other end of the “railway”. Also you have to ride the train before getting your paperwork so you’d have to get turned around to go back to the shipping office.
@@purdybill Are you telling me that this useless railway actually dont get you anywhere and you ride one time in each direction ending where you started? 🤣
@@demacherius1 - Yup. You back on to the rail cars, you’re moved a couple hundred feet down the track and back to the ramp, drive off and get your paperwork. It’s supposed to get around the Jones Act, but they didn’t do it right. Prior to this you had to drive to Saint John NB, put the trailer onto a train and then pick it up the other side of Saint John and then drive back to Bayside.
US ports are controlled by Longshoremens Unions - pay is nowhere near minimum wage - its crazy high or they strike and they prevent tech upgrades that would reduce need for workers
Some time ago an Australian stevedoring company got tired of the theft of cargo and the insanely high wages they had to pay. So they quietly recruited a bunch of youngish women from farming areas and discreetly trained them on container handling procedures. Then they sacked the corrupt wharfies and replaced them with the women from farming areas. Within a week the girls were handling containers at nearly double the speed of the "expert" wharfies. Their union had to back down, promise to stop stealing the cargoes, agree to faster container movements and to stop any more wage demands or obstruction of business. Then the farm girls went back to the country and were hailed as heroes as farm produce could now be exported much more cheaply.
Unions started as a good way to improve working conditions but now they're mostly corrupt and only exist to profit off their members and prevent any competition.
The dig about the federal minimum wage wasn't for the dock workers so much as the ships' crew. You don't have to look far to find the testimonials of former cruise line employees who were treated like garbage. Suckered in by ads about how glorious it is to live on a cruise ship, they end up working 24-hour on-call as toilet slaves. The weekly pay sounds good when you imagine a normal work week, but divided by 168 hours in a week it works out to pennies an hour. Also no benefits, no work safety laws, no job security.
As a former licensed professional mariner, the Jones Act gets a lot of shit that it shouldn't. That one law keeps an entire vital national industry from completely disappearing and shipyards, trained and experienced mariners, and other naval industry takes trillions of dollars and decades to reclaim of it's lost (I use the term naval to mean "related to nautical activity" and not to mean in the military fashion). The Jones Act is already too heavily undercut and the US Merchant Marine and pool of qualified mariners is way too small to maintain an adequate sea-lift capacity to match the needs of the US Military and our global commitments.
Have a look at the American ship building companies. How many actually exist that are not focused on military vessels? The biggest problem is that you don't find the people who want to build the ships, you don't find the crew to sail those ships and you don't find the financing to build out a proper merchant fleet. If tomorrow you needed that fleet that the Jones act wanted to protect, it simply isn't there to be utilized. So what's the point of the Jones Act when shipping something from Alaska to Hawaii is 100 times more expensive than shipping something from Alaska to China? At the end of the day, the act did not protect the US merchant fleet and it is hurting the economy.
The only problem with the Jones Act is that it’s too weak Ships officially based in “Panama” dominate the seas to dodge paying taxes and avoid labor standards
if anything, the jones act shows that it is very possible for america to protect any economic sector it wants with some regulation. the auto industry could've used a jones act. manufacturing, steel, heck even commercial stuff like wall street or tech stuff like silicon valley. agriculture and even pharmaceuticals have their own version of protectionist regulations. it's all down to whether lawmakers want to push for something or if their corporate bought leaders want something else.
Interstingly enough, in "Wealth of Nations", Adam Smith opposed most forms of protectionism, but he specifically supported protection for a nation's shipbuilding industry, as this is a matter of vital national security importance.
Man stuff like this is really interesting to hear. Your videos and Real Life Lore got me super interested into geography, how governments and the world run, and history.
As a Nebula subscriber, it is 100% worth the price. All the original content on there from some of TH-cam's best educational creators, with extended cuts of videos that you see on YT, with no ads, it's great! Plus the access to Curiosity Stream makes the price of an annual plan that much better. It's not a scam at all, unlike the topic of this video.
I'm, for some reason, ridiculously impressed you managed to actually use footage from Maine (the Nubble Lighthouse) when talking about Maine. Good job, editor.
I find it hilarious how for 9 years they've been sending all their cargo over this short, meaningless rain line for literally no reason since it wasn't official anyways.
@@ZeteticPhilosopher Trust me, once you've seen Legal Eagle talk about how easy it is in the States to break the law, I'd say that Amazon has broken the law as well. But it is such an obscure law that nobody cares about it; it just hasn't been repealed yet, thus remains in force.
@@RustyDust101 Fair enough. We have a lot of stuff from the 19th century still technically on the books. However, I'm tired of people saying that people/companies/governments/institutions they dislike are breaking the law. It's a rhetorical cheat to get out of having to actually say why something is unethical.
@Velzek -- A good size train with 100 cars can transfer 200 full sized containers or 400 of the half size which are the measurement standard. But a container ship might carry 10,000 of these. It would take 25 trains. Trains can be made longer (with extra engins) but in the West much of the mileage is single track which means the passing sidings set the maximum length of the train. It can be done but it takes a lot of trains.
I must have missed something. This video said the act applied for shipping goods domestically and that you could get around it by going to a foreign port. If the ship is going from Alaska to New Brunswick, Canada....doesn't that count as a foreign port? Last I checked, Canada was still a separate country.
Exactly- and last I checked, Alaska was part of the United States. This video is idiotic. I’m less concerned about the American Seafood company than I am about the idiots running the US Government.
@@markdavis7397 I think it's more a failing on HAS's part. They presented it as shipping from US port to US port makes it illegal under the Jones Act. Then they used the example of Cruise ships stopping at a Canadian port before continuing to a US port as a loophole. Then they proceeded to inform us that American Seafoods shipping from a port in the US to a port in Canada is illegal and required an attempted workaround with the Railroad bit. The railroad bit is the purpose of the video and is very interesting. However, the information as presented in the video fails to actually explain why Shipping from a US port to a Canadian port is illegal. Instead, it appears to offer proof that there is no need for the railroad shenanigans. I'm not saying what they did wasn't illegal. I also doubt all those involved would be going after American Seafoods. I'm saying the video fails in it's attempt to explain why this was illegal.
And yes I know they said "under a similar law" when referring to cruise ships. They still didn't explain why shipping from the US to canada is illegal in a US to US shipping law.
The cruises can go between US ports. They just have to stop at least once in a foreign port. For example, until 2007 Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) used to go to Fanning Island (Tabuaeran) in Kiribati along with the Hawaiian stops, such as Oahu, Maui, Kauai, etc. They didn't have to go to Kiribati between every stop (Oahu=>Kiribati=>Maui=>Kiribati=>Kauai), just once for the week-long journey. But in 2004, NCL had damage that slowed the ship down and didn't allow it to get to Kiribati every week. During that time, it just went around Hawaii each week and the government waived the requirement for a couple months due to extenuating circumstances. So history would say that it would be an extenuating circumstance and they could dock in a US port in an emergency situation. (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Star)
I'd hazard a guess that they'd be allowed to dock and if repairs were going to take any length of time, they'd have the option or obligation to fly the passengers either home or to the point of departure.
For passenger ermegencies a waiver is usually given. For disasters or emergencies waivers are given as well usually, but considering the fine is on a per passenger basis, the ship will usually not dock until a waiver has been secured.
The Jones Act also applies to trucking as Canadian truckers can’t pick up and deliver freight in the US. They can only deliver in the US and pick up in the US to deliver to Canada.
The thing is: if they shipped the fish from Alaska to Canadian Rail in BC and then cross-country, they could take advantage of the Jones Act exemption.
I live near this. Just an update as I just made a trip down to the Bayside port yesterday. The rails have been taken out and it looks like they’re in the process of paving over it. It was a good run while it lasted lol
Yeah, I remember when I worked for Holland America Line, all the Alaska cruises had to stop over in Canada to get the passport stamped to get round the Jones act. Also we couldn't simply drop employees from head office off in Seattle. We had to drop them in Vancouver with a plane ticket back to Seattle, even though the ship would be going there.
This is the kind of job that shows up in a creepy pasta story. “Yeah I worked on this 100 foot rail line. Trucks would come in. Go forward to the other side of the dock, then leave.”
That was Atlantic farmed salmon, not wild Alaskan salmon in your little video clip. Alaskan salmon isn't that pale. It ranges from bright pink to red...not borderline white. ;) I mean, HAI nitpick a lot of stuff, so I figured it was only fair that I do, too.
I think if it takes you 9 years to notice something outside your back door, you're kind of obligated to just leave it since forking up that bad is pretty inexcusable in itself
It costs more money to unload and reload a whole ship and then move it again then it was just to put it on a truck and then a rail and then let the truck handle the rest of the journey.
The only thing I got from this video is how little the government cares about your best interest. The fact that the government made laws to intentionally inflate the costs of goods that you buy to increase the profits of transport companies.
The A in APL might stand for "American" but it is incorporated in Singapore and owned by CMA CGM of France. The only US based major international company is Matson and it is about 65 times smaller than either Maersk or MSC. I guess protecting the US domestic market stifled the need for US domestic players to compete internationally
Imagine, if you work on a ship that goes from one US port to another US port, you are under American law. Why not let an auto plant in the Midwest register itself in Liberia and pay 15 cents an hour?
The Jones Act is part of the "paradise tax" of Hawaii. We have two competing shippers, Matson and Pasha (formerly Horizon, formerly Seatrain) and they do NOT compete. In the past 30 years we have lost our local milk and chicken production. With the exception of certain locally grown veg and boutique raisers of beef and pork EVERYTHING comes from the mainland. Furthermore, goods manufactured in China don't get loaded last and dropped off here....they go all the way to the Port of LA/Long Beach, offload and reload on Matson or Pasha. We pay the price. The Jones Act has got to go, but congress is too busy preventing that horrible communist practice, universal healthcare.
You spent a paragraph complaining about the unintended consequences of excessive government regulation that was originally intended to "help" and then capped it off by asking for excessive government regulation to "help"
Correction at 5:20 - A ship’s nationality is not determined by where it was manufactured, but by where it is registered. Princess Cruises, for example, registers its ships in Bermuda, so they are designated by the US as a Bermudan ship. Doesn’t detract from your message, I know, but still inaccurate in the video.
1:44 I feel bad for knowing them. Germany: Meyer Werft Papenburg Finland: Meyer Turku France: STX Saint Nazaire Italy: Fincantieri (But I'm not sure about spelling and I think the one in France isn't named STX anymore)
STX is bankrupt. I think french government bought it. STX turku was sold to meyer. e: in the progress french government may have backed an order of a cruise liner which then made the whole thing fall into their hands, according to wikipedia later they sold 50% to fincantieri (also state owned)... small world it seems in cruise ship building business.
You should definitely do a video on the time when Allergen sold their drug patent to a Native American Tribe because they thought the tribe’s sovereign status under federal law made the patents immune from administrative review by the USPTO
"Shockingly, the company did not properly register their scam with the government"
Love the humor on this channel.
I have fewer than 1 friend in the World. That's right. Everybody disses me for making bad videos. I think they are perfect though. Who is right? My dissers or me? Which side are you on, dear ja
@@AxxLAfriku I side with medical professionals, who apparently have not been asked for input.
@@AxxLAfriku You have some of the worst videos I have ever viewed on TH-cam
heaps better than bendover productions
@@AxxLAfriku but you have two girlfriends.
Aren't girlfriends technically speaking also friends?
So what is it now?
This is why britain has a law forbidding handling salmon suspiciously
cod is fine though right? Ive got so many in my bathtub, do you want to buy some?
Is that fucking fish jenga?
Lmaooo
_we flew a kite in a public place_
What about fondling?
"Government caught on in record time, it only took them 9 years" HAI out here spitting facts
‘The government killed a ton of people in a fire including children
Luckily they managed to save 3 children from the definitely suicidal cult that was definitely not not planning to do that’
@@thatrandomguyontheinternet2477 Is this a reference to the MOVE bombing?
@@syrialak101 it’s a reference to the siege of Waco
Lol some people didn't know Waco siege
Good news is it means I have six years left before the government fires me for not doing any work
The worst part of this is that it would probably cost less and be more efficient to take that fish to Vancouver, BC, load it on a reefer car on an actual train, and send it across Canada by rail. Reefer rail cars are a lot cheaper to operate and are more environmentally friendly than reefer trucks or ships, and the fish would get to Maine within a week.
Yeah that seems confusing to me as well. Is there really no canadian transcontinental rail line?
I'm amazed HAI hasn't yet given this a heart, yet, as it's very Pro-Train.
Trains, one of the, if not *the* best, transportation around!
@@CantLaunchCivV there is. The Canadian Pacific. It also runs through Maine, which would be perfect for the company in this video
I am so sure that if it could be any cheaper they would do it. If they are happy to spend a shitfuckton of fuel to send fish across half a whole shit of a continent it must mean they are saving at least 50c doing so.
...but this was my first doubt as well. Why the fuck not?
That would be way less efficient. Trains carry a tiny amount of cargo compared to boats. Look at Israel's failed plan to build a railway from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea to compete with the Suez Canal. Even a huge modern rail line can only transport a fraction of the containers that a few container ships can.
Next Video on Wendover Production:
The Logistics of Making a 100 Foot Freight Railway
No they didn't use an airplane
@@rcat777 Next Video on Wendover Productions:
The Logistics of Making a 100 Foot Freight Runway
You are joking, but I really am interested in how they move the railcars without a locomotive.
ngl, how DO you build a 100 foot freight railyway?
Who do you call? Do you need permissions?
Wendover productions: "look, capitalism. Broken huh?"
Missing a couple details to the issue. Although an inefficient way of doing logistics, Customs has previously approved other "railways" to do the same thing for other companies. Customs was aware when they built it, and now are singling them out. After reading more on a few maritime sites, besides fish, it also smells like the company missed an annual political donation to someone.
Yes, some palm missed greasing.
Well they said it wasn't registered.
Now since it's being registered in Canada I don't see why in principle Canada would take issue registering it.
Yes it's stupid but why would that matter.
Yes it's rule bending but it's American rule bending. It's not Canada's job to enforce American tariffs
@@sparkzbarca That's my hunch. I don't believe anyone would give a shit if they saw what you were doing was "a scam loophole to get around the system" that's not their problem. That's following the letter of the law and the details isn't their job.
Their job however does include following the letter of the law which said you were only exempt if you registered it.
They aren't politicians they don't write the rules, they just enforce them.
Was his name Justine?
Canadians: *sees a video about Canada, gets excited that someone remembered we exist*
The Video: *its about America*
Canadians: "oh."
dont you mean
canadians: sorry
@@pvic6959 nah, it should be "eh"
Canadians: "oh.", "Sorry"
@@tomrogue13 No, it's "Sorry, eh?"
Exited?
Next Up: The Staircase to heaven isn't quite impossible
it legit isn't. just needs active support and a ridiculous amount of money.
"It's not impossible but it's gonna take longer than the 8 minutes the song lasts"
@@willh35 true facts
It only requires a impossible amount of a single material and money to get said materials
When i read it i thought that most tall stairs can do that no? Just jump!
That 9 year record time joke was priceless
Next up on Wendover Productions: The Insane Logistics of Transporting Fish from Alaska to Maine
Really hope they operate a passenger overnight train on this track! Imagine all the beautiful Canadian scenery you’ll see along the way! 🇨🇦 🚊
😅😅😅😅
The 10 foot mile marker…. The 15 foot mile marker…. The 11.5 foot mile marker….
Ahh, such fond memories.
lmaooo they were getting fish near alaska, boated all the way around north america back up to maine? they could have literally used a legit canadian railway from alaska to maine
That's to easy. That's not the American sea food company way
container shipping is cheaper
trains are more effiecenty than cars, but ships are far more efficient. But why not just unload at a port in Canada and take it down to maine by railroad? Or use a registered canadaian railway to travel one stop and back and use this loophole.
No Canadian railways connect to Alaska, but you could theoretically take a ship to Prince Rupert or Vancouver and load them onto a train there.
It seems it's cheaper to buy or rent a shoddy old ship from some east Asian country, with crew held in conditions not much better than outright slavery. BTW this is why so many politicians are defending illegal immigration, because illegal migrant workers can be easily abused and exploited, without regard to minimum wages, workplace safety, etc.
The Jones Act hurts anyone living in non-mainland USA, since it means all goods must be shipped at higher costs, which means the costs get passed on to the consumer. It costs a heck of a lot more to have something shipped from Los Angeles to Hawaii than it does to Singapore.
Even Alaska.
Yes, but retaining US ship building capacity is literally how you won WW2.
@@Zraknul but the law is not even maintaining ship building capacity anymore.
@@Zraknul -- Shipbuilders Germany, Finland, France and Italy (mentioned in the video) aren't exactly low wage, unsafe, third world countries, and they apparently can build ships profitably. So why can't the USA?
@@Zraknul The ship building capacity has not been retained anyway and, more importantly, WW2 is in the past, not future.
Instead of paying $350M, the company settled with the US government in 2023 for $9.5M. That'll teach 'em.
"The American seafoods company doesn't do things the easy way. They do things the American seafoods company way"
I NEED this on a T-shirt.
We watched the fucking video…
@@polipix_ Not me.
in reality they did it the most easiest way (to get this law loophole)
Half as intresting has an excelent writter. The jokes just so well timed.
Nah, the guy from Wendover is way better than this schmuck!
@@mikeebrady I do believe this is 100% factual
@@mikeebrady picture the same writer being the writer on both the channels? We never see their faces I should hire this shmuck for my page lol
So fishy
I like BioArk's
As an Alaskan, we need to get rid of the Jones Act and the Passenger Vessel Services Act.
As a Canadian, we are willing to consider your application to join a country that remembers you exist.
The US territory of Puerto Rico also has to follow this act when it comes to cargo ships. Being an island that results in extra surcharge for items on the island that range from half a billion to one billion US dollars. Exception, cruise lines and cargo airlines going to PR. are not subject to it. Aside from Alaska, the US territory of Guam and Hawaii are also subject to this act. The US Virgin Islands is exempt from this act. Funny thing is that you can see parts of PR. from the US Virgin islands.
@@ab9840 I support the Jones Act. Certain exceptions needs to be made for some territories. But in general, it helps American workers, and jobs in the country. The act is not about airlines. Just water transportation. So there's no restriction on foreign companies serving any destinations in the US, provided that they are registered for business in the USA. So it's weird to bring up airlines. Foreign cargo airlines can do the job.
@@johnladuke6475 Most Americans are more aware of Alaska than they are of Canada.
@@hus390if u believe in the free Market then you shouldnt support the Jones Act.
Seems to me they should just transport the fish to Vancouver, then ship it via the Canadian Pacific railroad, which can carry it directly to Maine, in a fraction of the time it takes to sail down to the Panama Canal.
Seems like if that was the case they would have done that…
Even the largest rail line can only transport a tiny fraction of the cargo that a few container ships can. Shipping is cheaper and more efficient, no matter how you slice it
@@mikemartin6748 You’re right, so long as speed doesn’t matter.
@@mikemartin6748 But the weird thing is that they didn't just do this loophole with a registered railine as most big ports have rail connections, just put it on for one stop and ship it back,
@Graf von Losinj Pretty sure the cringe is intentional, but otherwise your criticisms are fair.
Also the number of people who think they’re smarter and more knowledgeable than the team of consultants hired by a multi-billion dollar corporation is actually insane.
please unironically redo the eiffel tower st night it would be funny
I second this. Follow the exact same script and use the exact same visual resources, but redo the timing in the video and the audio recording so it's just ever so slightly different
What's the joke here?
I'm pretty sure that doing it the same way is exactly ironically.
He starts out talking about the Eiffel Tower, but then it turns out the video is about bricks!
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 but he has to do it the VSauce way: by linking topics in unpredictable ways
4:00 is William Osman doing stock video now?
On the subject of asinine multinational corporate shenanigans in New Brunswick, Canada, you should do an HAI on the Irving Group/Family. It would be worth six minutes of content by virtue of sheer robber baron-esq absurdity.
Hang on, i think i missed something - if the fish are being loaded in Alaska and landed in new brunswick that's not moving them between two US ports?
New Brunswick is in canada
Yeah I think they move it to the railway, and then they move it to the USA ports. Since it travelled on the railway, it no longer needs to be using only USA ships and crew, so they save a bunch of money
No, but you are still shipping from a location in the US to a location in the US. And in case of fresh food, I think it is important because otherwise you would get into an entirely different mess of exporting and importing the food.
@@Hans-gb4mv New Brunswick is in Canada. They don't mean New Brunswick, New Jersey but the PROVINCE of New Brunswick, ffs.
@@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co I know, Amy was commenting on the fact that this is an international shipment because the company ships by boat from the US to Canada and wonders why they need the train.
I add that this is probably because while it might be offloaded in Canada, the destination is still an address within the USA. The fish company is still shipping in a way that makes it a domestic transport even though it passes through multiple countries (the Panama canal isn't international waters either).
If shipping through a different country was enough, they would indeed not have to bother with the train, but that is not enough in this case as origin and destination are in the US. Another way would therefore have been to ship it to an address in Canada and forward it from there, but that means exporting from the US to Canada and then importing again from Canada to the US.
I was surprised to hear about New-Brunswick in a Half as Interesting video, but unsurprised to learn the mention related to shady business affairs.
If you want an interesting topic for a future video, the situation in New-Brunswick with the Irvings is quite unique, with a pretty crazy amount of influence on the province. Our current premier is an ex-Irving VP. The family also is (or at least at one point, was) one of the largest landowners in the US.
I will shamelessly admit that discovering this channel was like finding a gem, lol. One of the best channel on TH-cam.
The commentary is not only excellently done, but it’s interesting and leaves you laughing the entire way through. 🤣
The irony is that had they incorporated their rail line as a short line railroad they'd have met the letter of the law. LOL🤠
I’ve loaded in Bayside and put my truck on that train a few times. It takes longer to back on to the rail car than it does for the rail “trip”.
Why do you have to back onto it? Arent they smart enough to have a ramp on either side or the Railway line so you can drive on and off forward ?
@@demacherius1 - There isn’t enough room to have a ramp at the other end of the “railway”. Also you have to ride the train before getting your paperwork so you’d have to get turned around to go back to the shipping office.
@@purdybill Are you telling me that this useless railway actually dont get you anywhere and you ride one time in each direction ending where you started? 🤣
@@demacherius1 - Yup. You back on to the rail cars, you’re moved a couple hundred feet down the track and back to the ramp, drive off and get your paperwork. It’s supposed to get around the Jones Act, but they didn’t do it right. Prior to this you had to drive to Saint John NB, put the trailer onto a train and then pick it up the other side of Saint John and then drive back to Bayside.
@@purdybill Oh boy that makes that railway even more silly.
Thanks for the Information.
US ports are controlled by Longshoremens Unions - pay is nowhere near minimum wage - its crazy high or they strike and they prevent tech upgrades that would reduce need for workers
They're pretty cool, I love em
Some time ago an Australian stevedoring company got tired of the theft of cargo and the insanely high wages they had to pay. So they quietly recruited a bunch of youngish women from farming areas and discreetly trained them on container handling procedures. Then they sacked the corrupt wharfies and replaced them with the women from farming areas. Within a week the girls were handling containers at nearly double the speed of the "expert" wharfies. Their union had to back down, promise to stop stealing the cargoes, agree to faster container movements and to stop any more wage demands or obstruction of business. Then the farm girls went back to the country and were hailed as heroes as farm produce could now be exported much more cheaply.
Unions started as a good way to improve working conditions but now they're mostly corrupt and only exist to profit off their members and prevent any competition.
The dig about the federal minimum wage wasn't for the dock workers so much as the ships' crew. You don't have to look far to find the testimonials of former cruise line employees who were treated like garbage. Suckered in by ads about how glorious it is to live on a cruise ship, they end up working 24-hour on-call as toilet slaves. The weekly pay sounds good when you imagine a normal work week, but divided by 168 hours in a week it works out to pennies an hour. Also no benefits, no work safety laws, no job security.
Honestly, I applaud their ingenuity
As a former licensed professional mariner, the Jones Act gets a lot of shit that it shouldn't. That one law keeps an entire vital national industry from completely disappearing and shipyards, trained and experienced mariners, and other naval industry takes trillions of dollars and decades to reclaim of it's lost (I use the term naval to mean "related to nautical activity" and not to mean in the military fashion). The Jones Act is already too heavily undercut and the US Merchant Marine and pool of qualified mariners is way too small to maintain an adequate sea-lift capacity to match the needs of the US Military and our global commitments.
Have a look at the American ship building companies. How many actually exist that are not focused on military vessels? The biggest problem is that you don't find the people who want to build the ships, you don't find the crew to sail those ships and you don't find the financing to build out a proper merchant fleet. If tomorrow you needed that fleet that the Jones act wanted to protect, it simply isn't there to be utilized.
So what's the point of the Jones Act when shipping something from Alaska to Hawaii is 100 times more expensive than shipping something from Alaska to China? At the end of the day, the act did not protect the US merchant fleet and it is hurting the economy.
I mean that sounds like a good thing to me. It's not like the US actually needs all those warships anyway.
The only problem with the Jones Act is that it’s too weak
Ships officially based in “Panama” dominate the seas to dodge paying taxes and avoid labor standards
if anything, the jones act shows that it is very possible for america to protect any economic sector it wants with some regulation. the auto industry could've used a jones act. manufacturing, steel, heck even commercial stuff like wall street or tech stuff like silicon valley. agriculture and even pharmaceuticals have their own version of protectionist regulations. it's all down to whether lawmakers want to push for something or if their corporate bought leaders want something else.
Interstingly enough, in "Wealth of Nations", Adam Smith opposed most forms of protectionism, but he specifically supported protection for a nation's shipbuilding industry, as this is a matter of vital national security importance.
I'm not sure why but your writing has been getting a lot funnier lately, I really liked the corn joke
I drive by this railway a few times a year, thanks for sharing this story!
Man stuff like this is really interesting to hear. Your videos and Real Life Lore got me super interested into geography, how governments and the world run, and history.
As a Nebula subscriber, it is 100% worth the price. All the original content on there from some of TH-cam's best educational creators, with extended cuts of videos that you see on YT, with no ads, it's great! Plus the access to Curiosity Stream makes the price of an annual plan that much better. It's not a scam at all, unlike the topic of this video.
I'm, for some reason, ridiculously impressed you managed to actually use footage from Maine (the Nubble Lighthouse) when talking about Maine. Good job, editor.
2
And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you simi-setrical youtubers and that little goverment too.
Did you make this account, just to make this joke? Good job
Now let's find out who's really behind the American Seafoods Company...
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721
Gasp* Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke
Gotta say, I wasn't expecting the stock visuals used for the word "cunning" but I definitely appreciate them.
I find it hilarious how for 9 years they've been sending all their cargo over this short, meaningless rain line for literally no reason since it wasn't official anyways.
Q: How does a railway save Canada millions each year?
A: It asks very politely.
But couldn’t they just use the Canadian railway system it’d probably be cheaper and legal and actually make sense
But then it'd not using big brain business tactics. If it's legal, you're doing it wrong. Just ask Walmart and Amazon
@@twixieshores Find me one thing Amazon is doing which is illegal. Unethical, maybe, but illegal, no.
@@ZeteticPhilosopher Trust me, once you've seen Legal Eagle talk about how easy it is in the States to break the law, I'd say that Amazon has broken the law as well.
But it is such an obscure law that nobody cares about it; it just hasn't been repealed yet, thus remains in force.
@@RustyDust101 Fair enough. We have a lot of stuff from the 19th century still technically on the books. However, I'm tired of people saying that people/companies/governments/institutions they dislike are breaking the law. It's a rhetorical cheat to get out of having to actually say why something is unethical.
@Velzek -- A good size train with 100 cars can transfer 200 full sized containers or 400 of the half size which are the measurement standard. But a container ship might carry 10,000 of these. It would take 25 trains. Trains can be made longer (with extra engins) but in the West much of the mileage is single track which means the passing sidings set the maximum length of the train. It can be done but it takes a lot of trains.
I must have missed something. This video said the act applied for shipping goods domestically and that you could get around it by going to a foreign port. If the ship is going from Alaska to New Brunswick, Canada....doesn't that count as a foreign port? Last I checked, Canada was still a separate country.
Exactly- and last I checked, Alaska was part of the United States. This video is idiotic. I’m less concerned about the American Seafood company than I am about the idiots running the US Government.
@@markdavis7397 I think it's more a failing on HAS's part. They presented it as shipping from US port to US port makes it illegal under the Jones Act. Then they used the example of Cruise ships stopping at a Canadian port before continuing to a US port as a loophole. Then they proceeded to inform us that American Seafoods shipping from a port in the US to a port in Canada is illegal and required an attempted workaround with the Railroad bit.
The railroad bit is the purpose of the video and is very interesting. However, the information as presented in the video fails to actually explain why Shipping from a US port to a Canadian port is illegal. Instead, it appears to offer proof that there is no need for the railroad shenanigans.
I'm not saying what they did wasn't illegal. I also doubt all those involved would be going after American Seafoods. I'm saying the video fails in it's attempt to explain why this was illegal.
And yes I know they said "under a similar law" when referring to cruise ships. They still didn't explain why shipping from the US to canada is illegal in a US to US shipping law.
"America's most precious cargo, corn... I mean Americans" That got me.
CORN THE OTHER WHITE GOLD
CORN ITS FOR DINNER
CORN IS YOUR FRIEND (or else)
COOOOOORN~~~
I worked for a major railway 12 years. This is absolutely on par. I still can’t believe half of what I witnessed there.
What happens if a cruise leaves the US but then has to do an emergency docking (landing?) and the best option is another US port?
in short would be exceptional circumstances so likely be excluded since not part of its regular schedule
The cruises can go between US ports. They just have to stop at least once in a foreign port. For example, until 2007 Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) used to go to Fanning Island (Tabuaeran) in Kiribati along with the Hawaiian stops, such as Oahu, Maui, Kauai, etc. They didn't have to go to Kiribati between every stop (Oahu=>Kiribati=>Maui=>Kiribati=>Kauai), just once for the week-long journey. But in 2004, NCL had damage that slowed the ship down and didn't allow it to get to Kiribati every week. During that time, it just went around Hawaii each week and the government waived the requirement for a couple months due to extenuating circumstances.
So history would say that it would be an extenuating circumstance and they could dock in a US port in an emergency situation.
(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Star)
I'd hazard a guess that they'd be allowed to dock and if repairs were going to take any length of time, they'd have the option or obligation to fly the passengers either home or to the point of departure.
For passenger ermegencies a waiver is usually given. For disasters or emergencies waivers are given as well usually, but considering the fine is on a per passenger basis, the ship will usually not dock until a waiver has been secured.
@@stephenj9470 -- It might make sense for the US to be a bit more "liberal" but tax the ships and use the money to support American shipping.
2:48 a real "Canadian" railroad :D
It's actually a car from a SBB Cargo, which are the freight trains in Switzerland
The Jones Act should be repealed, keeping costs artificially high to benefit shipping oligarchs.
Saving American jobs and preventing us from becoming reliant on other countries for yet another critical part of the supply chain.
america tries to help it citizens by screwing them over
The Jones Act also applies to trucking as Canadian truckers can’t pick up and deliver freight in the US. They can only deliver in the US and pick up in the US to deliver to Canada.
I mean, 9 years is pretty damn quick for the government.
NGL one of the best HAI video ever
4:22 He just spit some hard truth
havent listened to this channel for a long time and I have to say your narration quality jumped. and it was never bad!
As of 4/3/23 the railroad has been removed.
Importing free Healthcare around 1:00 got me
2:17 is stock footage of the Evergreen, sister ship to the Evergiven which blocked the Suez canal. Nice crossover reference there.
The thing is: if they shipped the fish from Alaska to Canadian Rail in BC and then cross-country, they could take advantage of the Jones Act exemption.
Marchitella: finally, a worthy opponent, our battle will be legendary
0:43 "after the blockades of WW1"... Showing footage of WW2-era light cruiser
Okay, another train video... Uhh, can I have some more niche and unknown train line like this? Thank you
Peter Zeihan's rage at 1:01. "Thou shouldn't have passed!!"
This sounds like something a five year old came up with 🤣 I love it
LIKE KINDER EGGS OR FREE HEALTH CARE HAD ME DYING 😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣
Not only "Half as Interesting", these vids are also "Half as Informative".
It’s all fun and games till someone breaks the tracks
I live near this. Just an update as I just made a trip down to the Bayside port yesterday. The rails have been taken out and it looks like they’re in the process of paving over it. It was a good run while it lasted lol
Yeah, I remember when I worked for Holland America Line, all the Alaska cruises had to stop over in Canada to get the passport stamped to get round the Jones act. Also we couldn't simply drop employees from head office off in Seattle. We had to drop them in Vancouver with a plane ticket back to Seattle, even though the ship would be going there.
Life finds a way, said someone sometime about capitalism or something.
Jurassic Park?
th-cam.com/video/oijEsqT2QKQ/w-d-xo.html
This channel is getting quite sassy and meta... and i love it.
Was this mentioned in another video recently?
I definitely saw it somewhere not too long ago
Ditto but I can’t remember if it was like something off of here, wendover, or something completely unrelated
American companies' tax divisions are truly the most creative people on earth
“Tax laws have turned more men into liars than the game of golf” - Mark Twain
If it goes 100 feet away then it doesn’t go nowhere it just goes 100 feet that way
This is the kind of job that shows up in a creepy pasta story. “Yeah I worked on this 100 foot rail line. Trucks would come in. Go forward to the other side of the dock, then leave.”
That was Atlantic farmed salmon, not wild Alaskan salmon in your little video clip. Alaskan salmon isn't that pale. It ranges from bright pink to red...not borderline white. ;) I mean, HAI nitpick a lot of stuff, so I figured it was only fair that I do, too.
I think if it takes you 9 years to notice something outside your back door, you're kind of obligated to just leave it since forking up that bad is pretty inexcusable in itself
wait but surley shipping from alaska to new brunswick isnt from us-us port, its us-canada port so why isnt that allowed without the train journey?
It costs more money to unload and reload a whole ship and then move it again then it was just to put it on a truck and then a rail and then let the truck handle the rest of the journey.
because intermediate destinations don't apply to cargo under the Jones Act.
The only thing I got from this video is how little the government cares about your best interest. The fact that the government made laws to intentionally inflate the costs of goods that you buy to increase the profits of transport companies.
The A in APL might stand for "American" but it is incorporated in Singapore and owned by CMA CGM of France. The only US based major international company is Matson and it is about 65 times smaller than either Maersk or MSC. I guess protecting the US domestic market stifled the need for US domestic players to compete internationally
The train operator must be like "LOL LOL LOL" every time he is moving a truck around 😂
The Jones Act must be one of the most shortsighted and absurd laws ever invented by bureaucrats.
Imagine, if you work on a ship that goes from one US port to another US port, you are under American law. Why not let an auto plant in the Midwest register itself in Liberia and pay 15 cents an hour?
9 years, either a very loyal workforce or a very poor government. I choose option 2.
The Jones Act is part of the "paradise tax" of Hawaii. We have two competing shippers, Matson and Pasha (formerly Horizon, formerly Seatrain) and they do NOT compete. In the past 30 years we have lost our local milk and chicken production. With the exception of certain locally grown veg and boutique raisers of beef and pork EVERYTHING comes from the mainland. Furthermore, goods manufactured in China don't get loaded last and dropped off here....they go all the way to the Port of LA/Long Beach, offload and reload on Matson or Pasha. We pay the price. The Jones Act has got to go, but congress is too busy preventing that horrible communist practice, universal healthcare.
You spent a paragraph complaining about the unintended consequences of excessive government regulation that was originally intended to "help" and then capped it off by asking for excessive government regulation to "help"
Wait, let me go make some popcorn before you keep telling me about how free market capitalism is working great to improve the lives of all Americans.
Why would you demand universal, government-sponsored healthcare after quite brilliantly describing how a government mandate is crippling your state?
@@jsquared1013 I see people do this all the time. "Government bad, except for the things I decide it should provide".
@@jsquared1013 wait a second, some regulations are good... but then others... are bad??? my feeble mind cannot reconcile these things.
So... The fish company found a loophole to avoid the law, and the Government found another loophole to catch them! Well done, lawyers.
i liked this videos about train
it did not run off the rails
Sam is just salivating at all the airplane videos he is going to remake
Well the Timing of jokes are well written
Can we applaud
him 👏 😔 🤧
Correction at 5:20 - A ship’s nationality is not determined by where it was manufactured, but by where it is registered. Princess Cruises, for example, registers its ships in Bermuda, so they are designated by the US as a Bermudan ship. Doesn’t detract from your message, I know, but still inaccurate in the video.
Maybe watch the part at 1:20 again...
It’s time to prepare for the next iteration on Half an Interesting mistakes: aquire instead of acquire at 3:12
1:44
I feel bad for knowing them.
Germany: Meyer Werft Papenburg
Finland: Meyer Turku
France: STX Saint Nazaire
Italy: Fincantieri
(But I'm not sure about spelling and I think the one in France isn't named STX anymore)
STX is bankrupt. I think french government bought it. STX turku was sold to meyer. e: in the progress french government may have backed an order of a cruise liner which then made the whole thing fall into their hands, according to wikipedia later they sold 50% to fincantieri (also state owned)... small world it seems in cruise ship building business.
@@gearloose703 Thanks for the additional information
1:06 LOL
1:18
*SAM, I WAS IN MY BREAKFAST!*
As a merchant mariner personally who operates tub boats, the Jonas act is critical to our national security and many other aspects of life.
Been a while since you did a good vid, but this one was. Thanks.
You should definitely do a video on the time when Allergen sold their drug patent to a Native American Tribe because they thought the tribe’s sovereign status under federal law made the patents immune from administrative review by the USPTO
This also applies to territories, like Porto Rico adding to cost of living there.
I wonder who the real joke is on. Because they aren't laughing.
Thanks!
Ah, yet another bit of rail that leads nowhere. Arguably, nearly the same as every passenger railway in the US.
I think loopholes are the best topics for this channel.
2:27 a first world western county still paying 1960 third world pay. Ahh you've come sooooooooo far.
The fact that you can take everything off the ship, put on the train ride, put it back on the ship and save millions, says a lot....
"It only took them nine years." Yes, with governments, that *IS* superfast.
"As they could be shipping dangerous cargo like Kinder Eggs or free health care" 😂😂😂