building ships etc rarely makes a profit above 10-15% even in the best years - it costs zillions in investment and requires hands on management and location in Glasgow, Tyneside or similar and takes years to make money
Running a hedge fund costs nothing, you MAKE zillions in a few days and you don't have to meet anyone, manage anyone or even deal with the politicians (never mind HR, HSE,.....) and you can do it from a nice office in Mayfair
no brainer really
Two comments:
1. Shipyard managers make LOUSY hedge fund managers and vice versa. If your shipyards are idle, it is NOT because those managers have suddenly turned to financial management.
2. What's happening in the UK sounds very familiar. California used to have lots of heavy manufacturing jobs, including a
huge aerospace sector, a robust automotive sector, and yes, shipyards. They are now ALL gone. Yeah, they make a lot of money making movies and designing (but not making) electronics in California and do so without all the perceived hassles of heavy manufacturing. But there are LOTS of folks who are not only willing but enjoy doing heavy manufacturing and would love to do so in California. So why don't they? The regulatory environment. California has very successfully pushed heavy manufacturing out of the state. I worked 25+ years in the Douglas plant in Long Beach which built literally 10s of thousands of aircraft. The entire plant is GONE. (as are the Convair, Lockheed, Glen Martin, Curtis, Martin Marrietta, LTV, etc etc plants.) I now work in Texas working on airplanes that were built in Long Beach. What you facetiously call a "no brainer" is in fact mindless stupidity. California is now trying hard to win back the jobs they forced out, but that ship has sailed.