Will neo-cons admit that due to Gov regulation AND labor unions, US products no longer contain lead?

Question

WASHINGTON - More than 405,000 children's products made in China, most of them toy cars, were recalled Wednesday for containing dangerous levels of lead, a government safety group announced.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/ap_on_re_us/lead_toys_recall

D C Timberstone (below) I disagree. No tax cuts can go low enough to offset the child labor that is used overseas to make these products and profits for CEOs.

Bite My Shiny Metal (below) Due to the fact that they are always staing that the "free market" void of regulations would regulate itself.

Answer 1

Unfortunately no. Their blind love of unfettered capitalism and utter ignorance of the history of labor in America combine into the delusion that corporations are benevolent benefactors of society.

They think things like weekends, workplace safety, decent pay, and the forty hour workweek have always been there because business is wise and kind. They have no understanding that leftists in the labor movement won them these privileges (not rights) often at the cost of their own lives.

Answer 2

I don't know if Unions had much to do with it, but safety standards - mostly self-enforced by the same big evil corporations that liberals fear - have made American products a lot safer than they were at the turn of the last century.

And, the Federal government does have every constitutional right to tax & regulate interstate trade (and, thus, international imports & exports), so I can't see any sincere con ('neo' or otherwise), or liberal, for that matter, putting up much objection to strong regulation of imports to protect the American consumer.

Answer 3

I've been trying to buy US products, or at least non-Chinese products, and it's quite difficult. Ikea had a plastic tub for storage of toys made in the US. I used to manufacture EFT credit card stands here (in Indiana), but there are too many laws, the cost of labor, the quality of the education - these costs are all horribly high... (we employed 8 people at $12/hour for unskilled positions like assembly and painting in the mid 1990's- and it took about 3 years to develop a decent employee - then had to pay teamsters to ship product, even the UPS strike hurt). We honestly made a go of it, but couldn't provide a decent life for our employees OR feed ourselves. It ended up being one of the most difficult ways to make money EVER. (BTW, we had about 90% markup and could sell the product as faster than we could grow - but marking the price up further would have put us out of the market). Our paint process was so green we didn't have to hazmat ANYTHING - and could safely sewer it all.

Point is, there's no way to do things "small" now, and large companies aren't agile enough to respond to market demands - or we'd have electric cars and windmills everywhere. Both the Regs (like the EPA one that says you can't convert your gas car to E85 because of pollution - BUNK) and the Unions (Holding back competitive practices since 1950's) are wrong, and need to go.

Answer 4

I'll give you regulations but I am unaware of labor unions having an effect in the removal of lead.

By the way, this is a bipartisan problem. It was Clinton buddying up to the Chinese during his term and signing NAFTA that paved the way for all the outsourcing. Not to say the reps are untarnished but both parties had a hand in this problem.

Answer 5

Reduce local tax on the Corporations and ... they will come.

Added: I agree if child labor is being used. But in the case of MicroSoft most are adults working in India. The town of Redmond where business resides in and the state of Washington are literally taxing the workers right out of the state. I also worked for SAFECO Insurance in the same city, I was the Account Manager of their $1.8 nation wide security contract. The same thing happened to them as well.

Answer 6

I just bought a new battery for a vehicle I'm restoring. It's full of lead and acid. Energizer, Ever-Ready and all batteries for your I-Pods and portable electronics are made of carbon. Uh-ho.

Answer 7

It's not a neocon issue. Why would you frame it as such?

Edit: And I stand by my statement that it is not a neocon issue. The fact that you must resort to misconstruing an issue in all your questions; well, it goes without saying what we call that.

Answer 8

If lead is SOOOOOOO dangerous in the small amounts found in paints, how come our whole civilization wasn't wiped out in the 30's when lead paint was the norm for entire houses?

Answer 9

Can you believe the cons are actually defending China now? How low will they go? Can we please ship these traitors off to China?

Answer 10

they also don't sell as well due to greatly increased costs.