Congress Turns Toy Story into Nightmare for Small Business
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on February 11th, 2009 5:44 am by HL
Congress Turns Toy Story into Nightmare for Small Business
In a mad rush to “do something” last fall about the lead paint scare involving children’s toys, Congress hastily passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Today that law goes into effect, and its unintended – but entirely foreseeable – consequences have begun to threaten our already fragile economy. CPSIA was meant to protect children from careless or unscrupulous Chinese toy manufacturers, but its ultimate function may be to stifle competition in the domestic market for children’s goods. The legislation requires expensive tests – for lead and other toxins – be conducted on all products marketed to children under the age of 12, and imposes cumbersome rules to be followed. Big companies with large legal teams and regulatory compliance staffs – foreign and domestic – can afford such tests and follow these rules without much difficulty.
De-Programming Students
Letters from parents often complain of a sense of futility in trying to argue with their own children, who have been fed a steady diet of the politically correct vision of the world, from elementary school to the university. Some ask for suggestions of particular books that might make a dent in the know-it-all attitude of some young people who have heard only one side of the story in classrooms all their lives.
