*Click on the cartoon to see it larger.[Joel Pett, USA Today, SLATE]
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The more I think about these damned American toy companies, the more incensed I get.
You want to know what they think of children? They think children should be manufacturing their toys cheaply in some other country, deprived of fundamental working rights, deprived of their childhoods, deprived of their health and education.
That's what the bastards think of children.
If it were not so, it would not be so.
I am not talking about the Chinese people in these companies, I'm talking about the Americans: American business executives who pretend they don't know how the stuff they market is made, that they don't know what it's made of, that they don't know it is unsafe.
Why have the deregulation of big corporations and the dropping of OSHA standards and the laying off of inspectors not been good ideas? Because capitalist corporations have often been, in history, leeches and thugs. When they aren't pillaging our people, they're out pillaging the world.
They must be constantly watched. In principle, there is nothing wrong with profit motive or innovation or private enterprise, so long as it is regulated.
I'm sure these companies would like nothing better than to see the blame laid at the feet of the Chinese. But when you put into the chain of commerce a product intended for the American people, you have a responsibility for its safety and the environment in which it was made. Not some foreigner, you!
We should be reading stories like this about the executives at American toy companies:
CHINESE TOY BOSS KILLS HIMSELF
The boss of a Chinese toy firm involved in a huge safety recall has committed suicide, Chinese media has said.
Zhang Shuhong, who co-owned the Lee Der Toy Company, was reportedly found dead at his factory in southern China.
About 1.5 million toys made for Fisher Price, a subsidiary of US giant Mattel, were withdrawn from sale earlier this month. Many were made by Lee Der.
CLICK FOR BBC STORY
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Read a story from UPI about Child Labor and working conditions in Chinese toy industry: click
1 comment:
You hit the nail on the head with this post -- all I see on blogs are people blaming the Chinese, boycotting the Chinese, etc., when their anger should be directed at Mattel and all the other corporations who are making record profits at the American consumers' expense (and destroying the American economy in the process!). It's made me angry enough to compile a list of American toy companies who produce their products right here in the USA (www.toysmadeinamerica.com). It's time for Americans to start speaking up against big corporations outsourcing American jobs, and start putting their dollars into products made here in the USA.
Thanks for the post.
Teresa
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