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“You keep whining about raw materials pricing but that has little to do with the end cost of our products.”

I am really sorry but in your ignorance you ignore that that is not me “whining” but the owners and management of many manufacturing companies that KNOW that to be one of their biggest problems, that is THEIR position, and they ought to know.

It is fine that you understand that some companies are most beleaguered by many other problems, such as unions and regulations.

Your mistake is in using those additional problems as scapegoats and excuses for ignoring our problems, to domestic manufacturers, arising greatly on occasion from our own import restrictions. Ignoring that those issues exist and are real does not make them figments of the imagination of the manufacturers that report them.

but the owners and management of many manufacturing companies that KNOW that to be one of their biggest problems, that is THEIR position, and they ought to know.

Okay. If you truly believe that then I own a bridge in New York that I am willing to sell you at a steep discount!

The number one reason Hershey wants to leave is the cost of labor. They can produce their products much cheaper in other low labor cost countries and even with the additional cost of shipping they will pad their bottom line significantly once the labor costs that burden them have been slashed. This has happened again and again over the last 50+ years but you ignore that fact as if it hasn't happened over and over again.

Again, tariffs aren't the best solution to all problems, but if you truly want to keep our manufacturing base alive and kicking you are going to have to apply them sparingly or simply adjust to having your standard of living adjusted to that of the lowest common denominator.

Eventually, you will start seeing Americans fleeing this country in droves, right behind the illegal immigrants fleeing as well, towards better paying jobs in countries that will eventually surpass ours in standard of living. In fact, I believe you're starting to see that happen now in small numbers, and if our country continues down its current path, it will become a flood of people exiting the gates for a new "promised land".