You are being taxed to fund the production of a much more expensive sugar substitute.
High tariffs on cane sugar are there to protect corn farmers, but the wast majority of businesses enjoy no such protections.
Because some things like hard candy just can not be made with corn syrup, some hard candy manufactures have moved factories to Mexico.
Note that it wasn't labor costs that made them move, it's the fact that imported sugar has tariffs, but manufactured hard candy - 100% sugar, does not.
This costs the US productive manufacturing jobs.
And lastly, in some people's subjective experience many things made with cane sugar just taste better.
Many people who have tasted both US and Mexican or Canadian coke or pepsi claim this, but again that's subjective.
Are you sure about that? I know of a reasonably successful person in Canada who started this way (and now sells to Costco). Of course, the barrier to doing this may be lower in Canada.
It's also illegal in Canada. The laws vary in different states and provinces, but there is probably a law in every US state and Canadian province which prohibits commercial food preparation at home.
However, there are no food prep cops. The department of agriculture does not have swat teams waiting to raid home kitchens because they got a tip that the proprietor recently bought 10 lbs of sugar. Nobody cares unless someone gets sick. If the sales happen in any sort of volume a commercial kitchen will be needed relatively quickly anyway.
(my aunt has a business selling fancy holiday cookies to Macy's and she started out at home.)
Hey, I knew Abi a few years ago! So weird to read about her here. Sounds like a great business and lessons everyone can learn on the role luck can play in your success or failure. Not sure it's a typical HN story though.
