A Stupid Law We Need to Stop
If you listen to the show, you know that Kim makes most of her income from making clothes for children. For years she’s carefully selected her materials, meticulously designed one-of-a-kind articles of clothing, and sold them to hundreds of parents across the country. But if our government has its way, she’ll have to kill her business in February.
If you listen to the show, you also know that we’re pretty sick and tired of all the crap being manufactured by our future benevolent overlords in China – as a nation, they’re pretty bent on profit at the expense of all else, including the health and welfare of everyone who comes into contact with their consumer goods. In 2007, the world was flooded with products that were dangerous, including toys tainted with lead and food bulked up with melamine.
Naturally, no one wants that kind of crap finding its way into the hands of kids. there was a great deal of public outcry, and Congress reacted by creating the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which requires testing of all consumer products for a variety of dangerous materials such as lead and phthalates. Unfortunately, those who drafted the law weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer and the end result is a law that will require anyone who produces any item for children to be tested by a third-party laboratory at a potential cost of several thousand dollars per item.
Obviously, someone like Kim who is selling dresses for $50 to $200 a pop isn’t going to be able to turn much of a profit if she has to test each component of each dress. Just as a for instance, let’s say a dress has two kinds of buttons, a zipper, and a bow. Kim now has to test the material used for the dress, the material used for the bow, each kind of button, and the zipper. That’s five items, so now her dress costs roughly $5,000 in testing before she even starts sewing. Gee, somehow I don’t think that’s going to work into her budget. Poof, another American small business bites the dust.
Think this law won’t affect you? It will if you think about having a yard sale to sell the clothes your kids have outgrown. Do you ever buy second-hand clothes? You won’t be doing that once this law goes into effect, because it’s a retroactive law. You can also bet that the cost of toys and clothes you buy new in stores will go up, and probably a lot more than just testing can justify. In this jacked-up economy any excuse to raise prices is going to be seized on.
So what can you do? Well, go to the Handmade Toy Alliance website and follow their instructions to contact your Senators and Congressman. Do it now, because they’ve quietly moved up the deadline for public input on this to January 05, 2009.
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Been a listener for a while.
This is just another example of the unexpected consequences that occur EVERY SINGLE TIME government does something. People get hurt. That is the effect you’ll have if you run an organization backed by nothing but threats of violence.
I hope all goes well with Kim’s business, but if the government continues on this path, they’re going to get us all soon. Just keep in mind; if you want your freedoms, you have to be willing to grant others their’s.