The New York Times has been notoriously biased and wrong for a long, long time. On things large and small. The Old Shady Lady is at least consistent - if they want to advance Leftism, no facts shall impede them.
Their Ron Nixon is part of a century-plus-old pathetic tradition.
Just this Saturday, the Times Editorial Board en masse not only defended President Barack Obama’s serial lies about ObamaCare - “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” - they parroted the President and his Democrats’ lie to spin down the damage being done. Joining with the Donkeys in insulting as stupid millions of Americans - many of them ill or dying - from whom ObamaCare just robbed the insurance they liked.
Insurance Policies Not Worth Keeping
There’s timeless Times bias - Walter Duranty’s 1932-Pulitzer-Prize-winning fawning, genuflecting cover-up coverage of genocidal murderer Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union.
But you don’t have to win a Pulitzer or hide behind “Editorial Board” anonymity to be a Times biased hack. Anyone can play - it is in fact likely a job requirement.
Nixon certainly isn’t shy. His recent “American Candy Makers, Pinched by Inflated Sugar Prices, Look Abroad” is riddled with Times’ hallmark anti-facts.
American candy producers, like the maker of Dum Dum lollipops,…are moving jobs to Mexico to take advantage of the lower sugar prices there.
Except Mexico sugar prices are, on average for the last decade, just $0.02 cents per pound lower in Mexico - $0.37 in Mexico, $0.39 here. Nowhere near enough of a difference to precipitate a move.
Nixon cherry-pick-cites the price from last year - and just last year - as evidence.
The price for one type of sugar, wholesale refined beet sugar, averaged 43.4 cents per pound at Midwest markets last year, the Agriculture Department reported, compared with 26.5 cents per pound for the world refined sugar price.
No one makes huge business decisions based on a one-year what-could-be-an-anomaly price. Which, in this instance, it was.
You know what does create a stark difference - to the disadvantage of U.S. manufacturing? Wages and benefits - driven higher here often by the cost of government.
As of 2009, labor in the candy industry is 58-74% of overall operational costs. For example, candy company average wages in Pennsylvania (hello, Hershey) were $18.78 per hour. In Ontario, Canada they were only $10.20. And in Mexico - a microscopic $0.51 cents.
Think that dramatic differential may play a slightly larger role in relocation decisions?
How about health insurance? Employer-paid health care costs in the U.S. were $7,680 per worker per year, $1,551 in Canada and $258 in Mexico. And that was before ObamaCare kicked in.
Think that dramatic differential may play a slightly larger role in relocation decisions?
Certainly much more so than two-cents-per-pound.
And despite all of this, gigs (and plant expansions) are blooming in the U.S. at least as rapidly as they are leaving. The news stories speak volumes (bushels? palettes?):
Hershey: 'We're Building for the Next 50 or 100 Years' at New Derry Twp. Factory
The Hershey Company West Hershey plant expansion will add 340,000 square feet to the existing production plant….Wade Latz, vice president-global engineering operations,…said “This is a quarter-billion dollar investment.”
Topeka received some sweet news when Mars Inc. selected the capital city of Kansas for a new $250-million, 200-worker chocolate factory….
Bimbo to Build Bakery in Pennsylvania
Bimbo Bakeries USA has purchased 30 acres of land in Macungie Township, Pa., to build a new $75 million bakery that will bring more than 100 jobs to the area and produce bread and buns for the Northeast….
BestSweet Candy to Expand. Adding 37 Jobs in Mooresville
The company recently invested $14 million in its Mooresville operation to add 40,000-square-feet in manufacturing space, and a 140,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility. The company also recently added 70 new jobs.
American Licorice to Expand Manufacturing Facility in US
US-based candy manufacturer American Licorice is set to invest $10m to expand its manufacturing facility at La Porte, Indiana… The company is planning to create additional jobs in the forthcoming year….
Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate to Open New Factory
The St. Louis-based chocolatier has announced plans to open a new state-of-the art 30,000-sq.-ft. chocolate factory in the heart of its hometown later this year. Their new facility will double production on the first day and will increase production tenfold, the company says….
The Times’ Mister Nixon apparently couldn’t be troubled to track down these (and many other such) stories. Or the research that proved his entire thesis inaccurate. Or even contemplate the tremendous cost of government that makes doing business here so much more expensive. Because it all would have, well, basically undone his entire piece.
The Times, like all Leftists, never allows facts to get in the way of a good beating.
