Billions of toys a year are shipped to the US from China.
Toys that you buy for your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc....
Now how many inspectors would you say there are to inspect the safety of all those toys?
100? 500? 1000? More???
Actually there is only one person, yes that's right, just one person incharge of inspecting tens of billions of toys.
So if you think the millions of recalls that have already happened is a good thing, just imagine how many more millions of toys are getting through and endangering the health and welfare of our American children!!!
I do not have any children myself, however I have many friends with kids whom I buy for every year and I do not want to be the cause of any harm to them.
Now I have heard that 80% of all of our toys come from China/Taiwan, which means somewhere here in the US are the other 20% of the toys that do NOT come from China and I plan to buy those toys for the children on my shopping list this year.
However I must confess that so far I have been unable to find any toys that are not made in China!!
I have even looked at clothes and jewelry and such, as an alternative to toys, but found that the large majority of those are also made in China.
So what are my choices?
Buy defective toys & clothes from China and hope no one gets hurt or poisoned with lead?
Or maybe not buy toys or clothes for the kids at all this year??
I could use some ideas..so please help me out here!!
12 comments:
loki if your artistic you could make them something yourself although depending on their ages they may see that as an insult
lol
though you mentioned one person as an inspector. you failed to mention that the toy industry has quality control people who conduct subsequent inspections. so it's not like all these toys are going un-inspected. since the govt always the toy induatry to self regulate themselves. the govt essentialy leaves it up to the companies to inspect there toys. this is how it's done in america in most industries.
What needs to occur is govt to instill stricter standards on the companies and not just fine them if something goes wrong. But to jail a person responsible for not staying ontop of the quality standards. Govt cannot regulate and inspect all industries. If this happens then we would go bankrupty and the price of items would skyrocket. Deregulation leads to fair competition and necessary in a capitalistic society.
I have been closely watching those toys with danger on tv. I have many of them in my house. Most little girls love the Barbie and Polly Pocket stuff, which sucks! Depending on the childrens ages, try gift cards to Borders. You can use them both in store and online. Granted, its not as exciting as opening a package, but as kids get a little older, 9 on up, they like being able to select what they want. Borders has dvd's, books, CDs and computer games. Many of the local shopping Malls have gift cards available as well that can be spent in any store. I am better at picking out alternative gifts for girls, so if you need some ideas, that don't cost an arm and a leg, let me know.
kathi
Buy them clothes. Socks, hankys, ties, shirts, dresses, underwear, diapers, jeans. Send them money or gift cirtificats. A dollar bill in a gift card always works. Learn how to inspect toys yourself. Use your imagination.
Muslims make bombs for their kids to play with.
Christmas elf,
Most of the clothing you suggested is also made in China.
And although the gift certificate sounds good....what they buy with the gift cards or the "dollar" would also most likely be made in China.
So my problem still remains which is NOT my lack of imagination!!
Kathi,
The Borders gift card is not a bad idea for the older children.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Now if I could come up with a good plan for the lil ones.
If you have any ideas please feel free to share!
Anonymous,
Yes it is true that companies have their own inspectors, however that's kind of like asking the fox to guard the hen house isn't it?
The toy companie's objective in life is to make money and they can not make money if they practice true quality control.
Infact the reason all the toys are being made in China now is so that the Toy companies can make even more money.
So pardon me if I don't trust them even a little bit.
The Consumer Product Safety Commision"s objective in life is purely the protection of the consumers (the American people).
Or at least that is what it's supposed to be.
But with only one little man assigned to inspect all of those toys I have to wonder who the commision is really working for.
Loki I see your point in the trust issue. But, self regulation has proven to work in many other industries. As long, as the govt, instills some kind of restrictions and boundries. If the govt simply did this and then also inspected the companies who are self regulating alot of these issues would go away. The key is enforcement of these restrictions on quality control and standards.
How young are the kids? 7-9 year olds like to make and build things. I used to get my daughter different craft kits, leather making, bead craft, pillow making. We also got into coin collecting that came with a book to put the coins in. There are also models that snap together for boys, without using glue, but I do not know where they are made.
There are books with tapes/cd's for little ones of nursery rhymes. My daughter got Teddy Bears Picnic and Ain't No Bugs on Me books with a cassette sung by Jerry Garcia when she was about 4 or 5 that she loved. Books at any age are always a good gift.
I hope this helps a little bit.
Thanks Kathi, great ideas!
Anonymous,
"Self regulation" is a wonderful idea in principle.
However, Government regulation became neccessary in the first place because companies did not self regulate.
Look at the turn of the century when industry was really taking off.
Pollution, child labor, unsafe working conditions, extremely long hours, and very low wages, etc, etc...
For these reasons the government ultimately had to step in.
Things have not changed at all as far as companies go. They continue to do whatever they can get away with.
We still find toxic waste dumping, unsafe working conditions, etc...
Companies try to get around unions and wage guarantees by hiring illegal workers and paying them lower wages knowing these illegals won't turn them in.
Companies such as the GAP have been caught using child labor forces in other countries.
Factories have moved to other countries so they can save money not only on labor but on safety issues.
And on and on and on!!!
Government restrictions and boundaries are neccessary but if companies, such as the toy industry, know that only one little man is there to make sure they make safe toys.....what do you really think they are going to do?
Of course they are going to put the all mighty dollar above the safety of the public.
Afterall THAT'S where the money is made...cheap shit sold for outragious prices!!!
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