Regarding the letters of April 1 “Trade, Sans Manufactures to Sell, Hurts U.S.”: I agree that it’s a shame that so much of our manufacturing has moved out of the U.S.

All businesses, and especially small companies and manufacturers, in this country have been under siege for decades. I am the owner of a small manufacturing company and speak from firsthand experience.

Increasing costs and ever more intrusive regulations are the cause of many manufacturers moving offshore because of family-leave laws, handicap accommodations, increasing minimum wages, NLRB rulings favoring easier unionization, increased unemployment compensation and workers comp costs, rising insurance premiums, higher taxes, lowering the bar for employees to sue their employers, ever more stringent EPA regulations, ever more complicated tax laws, difficulty finding qualified employees, etc.

Every business is different and has its own unique situation, but many have simply given up on fighting these never-ending battles that do nothing but add costs and lower profits. Sometimes it’s just easier to have the goods manufactured in a country that doesn’t have so many of these obstacles.

How many of the disgusted and alarmed “working class” voted for the politicians who have supported the laws, regs and costs that have resulted in their jobs being moved offshore?

Lowell Whitney

Golden, Colo.