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Nov 15th, 2007 by Don Ray

I received this URL from Consumers Union. If the US quality control is out of control, what is protecting other countries (such as Panama)?

Posted in Panama Journal

5 Responses to “Toy Safety is No Laughing Matter”

on 15 Nov 2007 at 3:48 pm12wheels

Very amusing………………..but on the other hand there is real cause for concern!
on 15 Nov 2007 at 3:52 pm2Don Ray

I agree. It is worth writing your congressman.
on 16 Nov 2007 at 12:29 pm3Judy Sacco

What’s protecting Panama? Nothing and nobody, I think. I have always thought China and the U.S. ship their quality control failures to Panama. I suspect that on every manufacturing line there is a bin marked “Pass” and another bin marked “Panama”.
on 16 Nov 2007 at 12:38 pm4Don Ray

Hi Judy.

That is why it is important for the US to clamp down on China. The pharmacy problems of China, was discovered in Panama, not the US.
on 16 Nov 2007 at 2:11 pm5KK

Bottom Line:
Nobody can “protect” you like you can. So just do it. When I was a young child my dear Aunt preached, “don’t buy Japanese products, buy American!” This was about 40-odd years ago and the lesson has stuck with me through the onslaught of inferior products flooding the shores of the USA for decades now. Not so much the Japanese, they rose to the occasion and obviously put out good stuff as time went on. So, compared to …let’s say, China.. Japan should have been thought of as no big threat with limited resources..human & otherwise. Besides, the Japanese industrial machine should have been inspiration for USManufacturers but somehow the opportunity was lost on many fronts. People would generally laugh at my ‘Buy American’ mantra just like they laughed at Ross Perot because he was of diminutive stature and had a ‘funny’ voice. They’re not laughing now. The giant sucking sound is a merely a waning whisper as the doppler effect of a train whistle dies as it’s moving out of sight down the tracks..and so goes opportunity to buy product that your neighbor got paid to make.

The Chinese, who might pay factory workers about 40c/hour, many of whom are outright slaves, are true feudal corporate enablers and now have the US by the shorthairs, refusing to buy USDebt and dumping USDollars at an accelerating pace. Precarious at best.

I believe any amount of preaching, “Buy American” is way too late to the party and now declining real wealth (inflation) forces consumers to ‘economize’ and be stuck with unsafe & vastly inferior products mostly from China.

Industry & thrift are the cornerstones of prosperity….happening on the other side of the world this time, but it was a good run!
PURA VIDA!