Comments on: They Are Not Our Friends

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:02:02 +0000

The thing that really bugs me is that most of cheap stuff from China is bought by poor people. They don’t have access to health care. No one is worrying about them. It got caught because it affected pets, and now high end toys. Who knows what has gotten in before people started checking?

By: Jim Bales

Jim Bales — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 03:17:32 +0000

Bryan wrote: “the people who import it … need to get nailed”

Amen!

Both the 6-year-old and 3-year-old went through their Thomas phases.

Fortunately, we only have about 4 of the items. (We are too cheap to by the Thomas branded toys, getting generics for much less. The Thomas items were all gifts.)

Of course, Massachusetts requires lead testing for all kids in pre-school, so (I believe) we would have seen it if either had ingested a significant amount of lead. (phew!)

Many thanks, Bryan, for passing that one along!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:10:57 +0000

Fallenmonk, this series costs upwards of $70 for some pieces and it’s a wooden train set. This isn’t sold at discount stores, it’s sold at upscale toy stores. I have a grandnephew who loves anything from Bob the Builder or Thomas.

Obviously the people who import it are responsible for insuring that the products meet US standards, and they need to get nailed as well as the Chinese. This is outsourcing in action.

Steve, I have a nephew who is surely going to have to deal with his son on this issue, but it has to be done. My sister-in-law is an artist and she switches her studio around whenever her grandson visits to keep him away from the solvents and chemicals she uses in painting and print making.

Cleaning up possible lead paint is a big part of any rehabs, because while lead paint was the standard down here for years, and lead primer is still preferred by a lot of people for metal boats.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:06:16 +0000

Is this a surprise? From Gale Norton forward, the Bush administration has been in bed with (or maybe on the window sill with) the lead-based paint industry. (See here.) Why should they worry about little things like lead-painted toys and brain-damaged children, when there's money to be made? I'd hate to be a parent who had to take Thomas the Tank Engine away from a kid. But it has to be done.

By: Fallenmonk

Fallenmonk — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:49:43 +0000

The Chinese are really not to blame for the quantity or quality of their products on the American market. We buy their crap by the boatload with little consideration of the source, quality or safety. There is so much brought into this country on a daily basis you could not inspect a fraction of it.

We need to stop buying it or at least insisting that we will only pay nothing for it. As Robert Heinlein so rightfully said “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” You get what you pay for and if you pay for crap that is what you get.

The Chinese are only supplying what we ask for. 80% of what you buy at Wal-Mart and similar outlets is only fit for the land fill when it is new yet people buy it.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:23:32 +0000

You changed your name and hung in moderation, Karen, sorry about that. Both versions should work now.

The Chinese have no safeguards or standards, and no one in quality control. Why wouldn’t they do this – it’s cheaper and no one has complained before?

In their system you have to bribe people to do business, so you may as well do something that’s worth a bribe.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:08:09 +0000

Actually, Аня, Wal-Mart did pretty well when Sam was alive and they featured American products. They made a profit and grew. They didn’t grow at their current rate, and they weren’t generating their current profits, but people seem happy to work there and the prices were pretty good.

Kind of mind-boggling, Jack. This is government by MBAs. This is apparently how businesses operate.

By: Jack K.

Jack K. — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:53:26 +0000

…we invaded Iraq on the premise of a faint threat of risk from weapons that they didn’t even at the time appear to have, but China gets “most favored nation” trade status even as they seem to be engaged in a concerted, deliberate, and wide-ranging effort to poison us, our children, our pets, and our livestock.

Clearly I’m not picking up on the “Big Picture” here…

By: Anya

Anya — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:53:36 +0000

Wal-Mart will go out of business.

No great loss except to it’s underpaid employees.

By: KarenMcL

KarenMcL — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:24:36 +0000

Well – a while back they had these Cheap cosmetics from China too (sold in dollar stores and as childrens’ toys) that had carcinogenic stuff in the make-up and poisonous fumes and content in the fingernail polish. This ain’t the first time around the block on this crap they ship over here and get on the market.

GRRRRrrrr…but Bush thinks he Saves Money by reducing enforcement – yeah a real savings with that idea!