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Let's not forget a couple of things about trade with China:
(a) Private and publicly traded U.S. companies that are putting us out of work and moving our jobs to China and now India so that we can by a 2 cent trinket for 2 dollars, and feel good about ourselves because we saved a buck.
(b) Those same U.S. companies U.S. CEOs, management, and employees design, specify, and test the products being recalled. They, and other U.S. companies in the supply chain also import them, put them on the shelves and sell them to us. They are regulated by the U.S. government and U.S. civil servants.
I don't defend China, but I do believe some blame should be apportioned to our own companies and ourselves for continuing to buy from and invest with the greedy SoBs.
Let's not forget a couple of things about trade with China:
(a) Private and publicly traded U.S. companies that are putting us out of work and moving our jobs to China and now India so that we can by a 2 cent trinket for 2 dollars, and feel good about ourselves because we saved a buck.
(b) Those same U.S. companies U.S. CEOs, management, and employees design, specify, and test the products being recalled. They, and other U.S. companies in the supply chain also import them, put them on the shelves and sell them to us. They are regulated by the U.S. government and U.S. civil servants.
I don't defend China, but I do believe some blame should be apportioned to our own companies and ourselves for continuing to buy from and invest with the greedy SoBs.
Private and publicly traded U.S. companies that are putting us out of work and moving our jobs to China and now India so that we can by a 2 cent trinket for 2 dollars, and feel good about ourselves because we saved a buck.
Its not quite that simple. A company my friend worked for sold parts. The parts were made in the building by local usa workers. Now, there are many competitors of these parts. A couple competitors started buying the parts from China and selling them for 1/2 price of his company and still making a good profit.
Everyone started buying them from from the other company and sales for his company went down the tubes. So whats next? Go out of business and fire everyone? Or compete and buy them from china, stay in business and only lay off the manufacturing side?
Most us companies are buying from China just so they can stay in business competing against the other guy who is buying from China. US people are just not interested in buying the same item for 10 times the price.
Thank you all for responding and an additional thank you to airedaly for sharing that very interesting article, "Santa Claus is Chinese". It was very informative. And, Samrai309, no apologizes are necessary for the ranting. At times, it's exactly that type of communication that can open peoples eyes to the problem.
We're going to have to ask ourselves if saving that $2.00 is really worth it. Not to mention the quality of the very products we consume today. As stated, our Christmas purchases are only the tip of the iceberg. And, as individuals, we can only make our choices known at the cash register and the voting booth. Please consider your choices wisely over this holiday season and a very Merry Christmas to all of you.
I belong to a parenting forum, and this issue has been discussed a lot in the last few months. For our family this year I bought a bunch of toys from Nova Naturals. It's my first foray into "natural" locally made toys, and we'll see how it goes. I have no idea if my kids and nieces/nephews will find the toys appealing. But I agree with all the pp that talk about how difficult it is to avoid buying things made in China.
One of my friends used to work for production at Mattel, and she was always flying to the factories in China for inspection. One thing she told me, that I never knew, was that toy makers like Mattle and KB aren't really the ones that decide which toys get made and sold. That decision is actually made by the superstores like Target, Walmart, Kmart. They decide what kind of toys are made, the materials, and the price-point. Walmart appears to buy the largest percentage of toys made for each season, so whatever they say, goes. If a toy maker's toy doesn't get picked up by Walmart, chances are it won't get picked up by the other stores either.
That just puts a very different perspective on this issue.
unfortunately it's not just children's toys - pet toys are also a problem. the majority of them are made in China and all of the pet toys tested were positive for heavy metals including lead.
I purchased a white christmas tree from Wal-Mart three years ago and after I got it home and opened the box - I found the warning. There was a slip of paper on the inside stating - "warning! do not use around children" "Made with lead paint".....sheesh!
it's a christmas tree!
we have very strict standards in this country, but we allow inferior products to be sold in this country if they were not manufactured here.
unfortunately it's not just children's toys - pet toys are also a problem. the majority of them are made in China and all of the pet toys tested were positive for heavy metals including lead.
I purchased a white christmas tree from Wal-Mart three years ago and after I got it home and opened the box - I found the warning. There was a slip of paper on the inside stating - "warning! do not use around children" "Made with lead paint".....sheesh!
it's a christmas tree!
we have very strict standards in this country, but we allow inferior products to be sold in this country if they were not manufactured here.
it's a sad, sad situation.
I saw similar tags on all the large electrical decorations for Halloween sold at the Target. It didn't say lead paint, but handling the cords would expose you to lead. I asked Dh about it, and he said, oh yeah, that's pretty common
I've worked in manufacturing before and the papers you talking about lead paint dont mean it actually has lead paint.
Most the of time they have no idea if it has lead or not, they dont test it, so to be on the safe side they just say it has lead. The reason they are doing this is new strict laws in California, lawsuits, other states looking to do the same.
As a Realtor I found it very interesting that we have not given more oversight to this issue. By law we are required to inform and educate clients who purchase homes that may have lead based paint, and these govt. pamphlets place an emphasis on child protection. How did we allow so many products which may potentially harm them to make it so far?
We didn't allow it so much as so many of our high powered Foggy Bottom Masters of the Universe have been bought by China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and various mega-pharm, mega-bank, and mega-oil new world order businesses who no longer respect or understand what the United States means. And who honestly believe they will be immune, as they sow the wind, to the whirlwind they will reap.
I think the Chinese sellout could open the door to small-medium businesses who can produce similar products and sell them locally or regionally, proudly stamped "Made in the USA." I think there are millions of consciensed consumers who would welcome the opportunity to Buy USA.
Private and publicly traded U.S. companies that are putting us out of work and moving our jobs to China and now India so that we can by a 2 cent trinket for 2 dollars, and feel good about ourselves because we saved a buck.
You know I also agreeded with that statement more or a less very a long time, until I realised something. These companies are not to blame! You and I are! The reason these companies move to china is because we the american consumer wants the cheapest deal that we can get. low prices and good bargins are what we all about. more so than the rest of the world. Therefore we created the advent of chinease products, everyone knows whatever is made in china will be cheaper. so we buy it or whatever is cheaper. if nobody bought products from china, then we wouldn't be getting products from china.
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