Removing such tariffs would reduce prices on sugar-related imports 44 percent annually. The letter writer claims that such savings are never passed onto the American consumer, but this is simply false. The money doesn't just disappear. These are better questions. Cutting a clearly unfair overhead on producers would provide a means of defraying price increases and layoffs while encouraging expansion and investment.
Protectionist policies work counter to the benefits of a free-market system.
Protecting the uncompetitive at the expense of the consumer only weakens us as a nation, producing inferior products and chipping away at innovation. The free market may be harsh, and people may lose jobs, but not as many as would be lost to a dereliction of the American marketplace. Ultimately, competition is a source of strength, not of weakness. Foreign subsidies ultimately defeat themselves by making their products weak to competition. Before I moved to Florida, I thought I was hip to venality and corruption in state government.