Do the Math

Had Big Unions cared enough to do a little math, they would have realized that their parasitical greed would kill the host at Hostess. Via ZeroHedge:

Doug Mansky, a Hostess driver in Detroit and a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was in the process of moving to a cheaper condominium on Tuesday, after his union had agreed to an 8% pay cut that he said would shave $200 a week from his income. After Judge Drain cleared Hostess to impose the same new labor terms on the bakers union, they went on strike.

If an 8% cut would reduce his income by $200 per week, he was making $2,500 per week, or $130,000, plus who knows what extravagant benefits — to drive Twinkies around. No doubt the union contract protected him from actually having to carry the Twinkies into stores.

Imagine how much cheaper food would be if not for unions. Imagine how many people who don’t have jobs would have them if it didn’t cost six figures to hire a deliveryman.

But there is good news for Twinkie lovers. The iconic American snack may continue to be made — by the Mexican company Grupo Bimbo:

Bimbo has already sniffed around the bankruptcy proceedings that have haunted Hostess for a decade, in a bid to further expand its North American portfolio and pad its $4 billion net worth. Bimbo reportedly put in a low-ball bid of $580 million a few years ago, Forbes reports, and may be rewarded for that move since the Hostess kit-and-kaboodle may fetch more like $135 million today.

But the big question is whether the same problems that haunted Hostess — high sugar prices tied to US trade tariffs, changing consumer tastes, and union pushback against labor concessions — will squeeze whatever profit is left in the brands.

Especially if a Mexican buyer is involved, production may go the way of the Brach’s and Fannie May candy concerns: south of the border. With US sugar tariffs set artificially high to protect Florida sugar-growing concerns, a non-unionized shop with access to lower-priced sugar in Mexico could be the Twinkie lifeline, economists suggest.

That is, Big Government and Big Unions are repressing America to the point that Twinkies may have to be imported from Mexico, which enjoys relative economic freedom.

On tips from Wiggins and F.D.R. in Hell.