I read this article this morning.
Mattel Apologizes to China for Toy Recalls
BEIJING (Sept. 21) - U.S.-based toy giant Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.
The gesture by Thomas A. Debrowski,
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They do care, sort of, in an 'ah, that's too bad', say the right thing sort of way. But when it comes time to go shopping, most of them take their chances and go for the lowest price. Safety, quality and fairness to the people who actually made the stuff rarely factor into it.
Outsourcing overseas made it easier to ignore the concept of a fair wage for a fair day's work. The workers aren't here. We don't see them on a daily basis. Some of us might feel a twinge of guilt as we pay for out $150 sneakers, but that's it. It's a case of out of sight, out of mind and the companies know that and use it.
In many ways China is like the Wild West. There is little or no government regulation over production. Regulation costs money and slows things down. The government is hardly going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. What they don't seem to understand is that there are limits on how many dead kitties and lead-poisoned babies the market will bear. The parking lots at the Walmart stores here are packed. I'm guessing the consumers here are still quite willing to take their chances if it means saving a few bucks but who knows how long this will last? Then again, the companies producing this toxic stuff aren't really in our backyard anymore. It's harder to convince them to do the right thing, especially if the right thing will eat into their profits.
The situation is really similar to the laissez faire capitalism of the 19th century.
I can't really comment on the neo-conservative issue, me being a foreigner and all. The political situation is a lot less black and white in my country. There's lots of shades of grey...kind of like old clothes that have gone through the laundry too many times.
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