The (Not So) Great American Candy Migration
8th December 2015
Just as thousands of birds migrate every year in search of better weather, thousands of jobs in food manufacturing, such as those in the candy-making industry, migrate out of the country in search of cheaper sugar. Who is to blame behind the mass exodus of jobs? The culprit is none other than the federal government. Through the U.S. Sugar Program, the federal government artificially raises the price of sugar in the U.S. to double the world price, just to benefit a small number of sugar farmers.
Crony ‘crapitalism’ red in tooth and claw.
The U.S. Sugar Program is a relic of Depression-era policy. Its origins start when the federal government passed The Sugar At of 1934. The original program sought to protect U.S. sugar farmers with generous protectionist policies and special treatment. Since then, the sugar program has ballooned in size, thanks to the efforts of special interests.
Special interests that, oddly enough, our Ruling Class cannot seem to work around.
Because of these protectionist policies, the price of sugar in the U.S. is twice the world price. The price of sugar cost American consumers up to $3.5 billion every year in higher prices for sugar-containing food, and of course sugar itself. For an individual family, the sugar program adds an extra $40 on their grocery bill every year.
Although Food Nazis will say that this is a good thing.
Above all, the biggest casualty of the sugar program is jobs – the Sugar Program has forced the migration of thousands of good-paying jobs in the food manufacturing industry. Yet unlike the thousands of migrating birds, however, these jobs do not return to the U.S. As ATR President Grover Norquist and Congressman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) recently wrote in the National Review, we must finally put an end to this expensive, insider sweetheart deal.
But, sad to say, Obama has more serious things to worry about — like climate change.