EVERY industry will claim that if they face free and open competition - national security will be harmed, enemies will be strengthened, the environment will be damaged, jobs will be lost, children will die.
We heard it back in the Carter days about airline deregulation. We were told the same when Obama bailed out General Motors. The Left screamed the same for years about health insurance, and then simply combined the power of government together with bought-and-paid-for cronies in the insurance industry and gave us Obamacare to rape the American middle class.
You're actually making the case in favor of the Jones Act and the protection of the U.S. shipping industry.
Foreign airlines are permitted to operate international routes to and from the U.S., but they are NOT permitted to operate between domestic U.S. destinations. This is exactly how the shipping industry operates under the Jones Act, and as far as I know it's the same for Federal trucking industry regulations.
And plenty of Freepers will fall for it. I remember when the OKI region had trucking regulated for interstate commerce by the feds and intrastate trucking regulated by each state (UH, IN, KY). After interstate trucking was deregulated the states kept theirs in place. To get around Ohio’s ridiculous rates we ship from Ohio to Ohio via Kentucky or Indiana. That would make the load interstate and exempt form Ohio’s union enabling crony capitalist scheme.
So if we must protect “our” jobs as a nation, then we need to protect them for my state, then we need to protect them for my city, but lets be honest I just want to eliminate competition and force you to deal with me only.