Chinese Authorities Execute 10 Million Recalled ToysBEIJING—In an attempt to assure the world's children that the millions of Chinese-made toys currently being recalled for containing toxic lead paint and tiny choking hazards can no longer hurt them, high-level Chinese officials announced Tuesday that millions of playthings are being rounded up and immediately put to death.
"We are committed to the well-being of children and putting the consumer's mind at ease," said Chinese president Hu Jintao at a press conference. "Boys and girls of the world, you need not worry. Your toys will be executed swiftly and harshly. When we are through, there will be nothing left to play with."
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Monday, October 1, 2007
Mattel Recall
Here is an interesting satirical article from The Onion on the recall of Mattel's products that were made in China. This is old news, but no one else bothered to post about it.
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10 comments:
I heard about that, and it sure took them long enough to fix the problem. I think people will buy anything as long as it's cheep, even if it's toxic. And people try to hide the truth about the danger of their products just so they can make money. It's pretty disgusing, actually.
I feel kinda bad for laughing at the picture...
Tara, when you say "I think people will buy anything as long as it's cheep, even if it's toxic," are you referring to consumers? I know that I, as a consumer, would never buy a toxic product, no matter how cheap it is (unless I'm specifically looking to buy toxic products).
This article is also making fun of the killings of the dogs with rabies in China a while ago too, I think. Actually, there's a lot of stuff going on in this article, more than I could guess at what current event it's targeting.
I agree with Mike since I wouldn't buy toxic products on purpose either. I suppose some of the consumers simply didn't know that the toys had toxic paint.
Nice article. I agree with Mike, and I'm always aware of what I buy and where it's coming from. Last week, when I was looking for a graph for the graph analysis assignment, I fell across these polls from The Gallup Poll: http://brain.gallup.com/search/results.aspx?SearchTypeAll=china&SearchConType=1. It's really interesting.
I remember that during this past summer, there were several Mattel, toothpaste, and pet food ingredients recalls. I think this has heightened consumers' awareness about China and the effects of outsourcing manufacturing. Hopefully, this will bring and keep business in the US, which will hopefully help our economy.
I think that it's less of a problem of consumers buying cheaper, toxic products, and more of a problem of less regulated toy manufacturing in other countries. I'm sure anyone who bought the product didn't know about the toxic paint... and if they did, they probably need few more science lessons.
Referring back to Ziva's comment, I also came across a number of articles this past summer on recalls for China's products. These continuing recalls force consumers to be more weary and cautious when buying products made from China, which could hurt China's economy. However, it would be difficult for the US to avoid importing products from China because it is already so interdependent on China as a main provider of cheap labor, products, and food.
It really disturbs me how I was not surprised to hear that this toy scandal came out of China. I have heard of many (TOO MANY) disgusting incidents in China where the manufacturers and business people will go at any lengths to make the extra buck(even if it causes the consumer terrible pain). I know it may seem as if I am advocating social stereotypes, but I really wonder if others feel these actions are due to how certain cultures innately are? I would like to hear other opinions.
I know this is late, but I can't not respond to Garrick's comment. I really feel that unhealthy / unhealthy / greedy behavior in a competitive market economy is human nature at work more so than cultural-specific. China is an adolescent, nascent, capitalist state and so lacks firm social and legal restraints on its bureaucratic or entrepreneurial classes. Same goes for its comparatively pathetic record on environmental protection; China is learning the hard way. The US appetite for cheap consumer goods that gave fuel for the Chinese economic boom is sort of crass, but it did help lift 100,000,000 people out of poverty. I do think it is possible to combine economic growth with sensible government oversight that can check the raw incentives of the market, and wouldn't mind if the net effect of these recalls was a better balance away from free-market at all costs ideology and towards sensible as-free-market-as-possible policy.
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