IF YOU DOUBTED AMERICA’S ADDICTION to cheap goods manufactured overseas, Mattel’s recall of 19 million toys manufactured in China should set you straight. The subcontractors and third parties producing goods for U.S. consumption are beyond incompetent and negligent: They are seemingly racing to, literally, kill and maim the consumers who naively snap up their products.
I’m just a layman. I don’t understand complex manufacturing and supply chain management issues; I haven’t scrutinized the slim profit margins that multinational consumer product companies subsist on. I am, however, the kind of guy who finds it freaking intolerable that a compound found in anti-freeze can end up in my toothpaste, or that toys for tots can somehow be smothered in lead paint. Shouldn’t lead paint just be given the total kibosh like its well-known, bad boy cousin asbestos?
Can you think of something worse to put in dog food than rat poison? Two-inch razor blades? A petri dish of anthrax? A live grenade belt? I’m struggling with this one.
First, the lax and totally unregulated standards of the Chinese took dead aim at our pets, now they’re coming after our kids. I assume they have something up their sleeve for Grandma and Grandpa as well. And, possibly, Uncle Ralph, if he’s not careful.
I probably shouldn’t single out China, for this is a true problem of globalization. I won’t get into a snore-inducing analysis of the global economy, but it’s pretty clear there’s a cost to pay when obtaining goods from shady slave-drivers operating on the edges of what’s generally acceptable and decent. Just my hunch. Look at all the crap you own (possibly purchased with your share of our $982 bajillion trade and credit deficit). Can you, with good conscience, verify that even 5 percent of your belongings were assembled in conditions that you’d be comfortable letting a family member or friend work under? It all starts with the consumer. We’re addicted to buying lots of stuff, at really ridiculously, always low, low prices. And the corporate titans and brand names we all love are more than happy to oblige us by out-sourcing quality control and safety standards beyond our borders.
I’m not naïve about the realities of business. I’d just prefer that the Barbie I buy for a beloved niece not act as a lethal weapon because of an unforeseen magnetic albatross that’s already claimed one life and caused countless injuries.
There are over 10,000 toy factories in China that produce over 75 percent of the world’s toys. And if any of them make a mistake, you can count on their top executives to forthrightly take responsibility and diligently commit themselves to righting the problem. Actually, they’ll just off themselves instead of facing the music. At least that’s what the manager of the Chinese factory that produced some of the defective toys did over the weekend. It was better to hang himself in a warehouse than to even consider working towards a solution. Who can blame him, considering that the Chinese government quickly executed its former top food and drug official after it was revealed he took bribes to approve certain products?
Your incentive to be open, honest and thorough about mistakes and/or misdeeds in China is a dishonorable and rushed death penalty sentence. And to boot, your family will be forever tainted with a mark of shame (I’m just guessing on that one, but I’m a good guesser). It appears the value of a plea bargain hasn’t been fully explored here.
Next summer, the Olympics will be held in Beijing, and I’m trying to think of the equivalent screw-up that would match these manufacturing scandals. A diving board that snaps in half, a javelin that’s magnetically attracted towards human flesh, swimming pool water replaced with bleach. I don’t know about you, but most of those sound better than a foamy morning mouthful of assorted toxins and unstable compounds.
Yesterday, CNN.com reported that Mattel’s chairman and chief executive informed the world via conference call that, “No system is perfect. There’s no guarantee that we will not be here again.”
You heard the man. Children can die or suffer catastrophic injuries using his products and, under these current conditions, there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
That’s the story behind toys these days.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.