What Better Time To Put Small, Home-Based Entrepreneurs Out Of Business!
Yes, just as people everywhere are losing their jobs and turning to homemade crafts to make ends meet. Overlawyered's Walter Olsen has a terrific piece in Forbes about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), the ridiculous law passed mandating testing for lead and phthalates of all children's products -- even those made out of materials like organic cotton:
Barbed with penalties that include felony prison time and fines of $100,000, the law goes into effect in stages; one key deadline is Feb. 10, when it becomes unlawful to ship goods for sale that have not been tested. Eventually, new kids' goods will all have to be subjected to more stringent "third-party" testing, and it will be unlawful to give away untested inventory even for free....Again with relatively few exceptions, makers of these goods can't rely only on materials known to be unproblematic (natural dyed yarn, local wood) or that come from reputable local suppliers, or even ones that are certified organic.
Instead they must put a sample item from each lot of goods through testing after complete assembly, and the testing must be applied to each component. For a given hand-knitted sweater, for example, one might have to pay not just, say, $150 for the first test, but added-on charges for each component beyond the first: a button or snap, yarn of a second color, a care label, maybe a ribbon or stitching--with each color of stitching thread having to be tested separately.
Suddenly the bill is more like $1,000--and that's just to test the one style and size. The same sweater in a larger size, or with a different button or clasp, would need a new round of tests--not just on the button or clasp, but on the whole garment. The maker of a kids' telescope (with no suspected problems) was quoted a $24,000 testing estimate, on a product with only $32,000 in annual sales.
Could it get worse? Yes, it could. Contrary to some reports, thrift and secondhand stores are not exempt from the law. Although (unlike creators of new goods) they aren't obliged to test the items they stock, they are exposed to liability and fines if any goods on their shelves (or a component button, bolt, binding, etc.) are found to test above the (very low) thresholds being phased in.
...Thrift store managers, often volunteers themselves, have no way to guess whether every grommet or zipper on a kids' jacket or ink on an old jigsaw puzzle box or some plastic component of Mom's old roller skates would pass muster.
"The reality is that all this stuff will be dumped in the landfill," predicted Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops. Among the biggest losers if that happens: poorer parents who might start having to buy kids' winter coats new at $30 rather than used at $5 or $10.
And even worse: Since the law does not exempt books, children's' sections at libraries and bookstores will, at minimum, face price hikes on newly acquired titles and, at worse, may have to rethink older holdings.
Write to your Senaturd or Congressloser to see if they might extract their heads from their intestinal area and repeal this thing. Olson writes that this piece of dimwittery passed the Senate 89 to three and the House by 424 to one, with Ron Paul the lone dissenter there.
bbbbbbbbut...
it's for THE CHILDREN!!!!
When are these assholes gonna stop destroying everything to save the children?
brian at January 21, 2009 4:23 AM
I see...children must be EATING all of these products. No? Then what the heck! My mother-in-law owns a consignment store and this stupid law is causing concern over potential liability.
The people who write these things must have tons of money and always buy new. Although more and more people who aren't struggling financially are realizing that buying used and saving the difference makes a lot more sense.
bankgirl at January 21, 2009 7:17 AM
Its time we let evolution back in from the cold.
The problem isnt american product it the chineese, and if you too stupid to do some reaserch on a product and too lazy to tell your children no occasionally, I am sorry but they deserve to die horrible lead poinioning related deaths.
It will prevent them from growing up and raising a crop of even dumber children
I swear I absolutly hate stupid people, I wish we were allowed to kill them
lujlp at January 21, 2009 7:56 AM
Thank you for posting on this, Amy. We have only three weeks to get the word out! If everyone calls their Congresspeople and complains about this, maybe they'll stop ignoring us! Most of them didn't actually read the bill, and even the ones who wrote it don't understand what perverse incentives and unintended consequences it contains!. Please help us get it through their thick skulls-- we don't want this law!
Wacky Hermit at January 21, 2009 9:52 AM
I just wrote my Congressman - for the second time.
dennis at January 21, 2009 10:45 AM
The public must understand the legislative process. You might wonder how the Congress could be so stupid as to pass so general a law, with devastating consequences, against a problem that has caused few deaths and could be handled much more easily and cheaply. Answer: They have had lot's of practice.
The legislative model is to pass the most general law with huge penalties. The problem will not be tolerated. This gives the lawmakers and federal agencies the greatest latitude (power) to do the right thing. Rest assured that they will not prosecute the innocent, although civil lawsuits may be encouraged by what has been made criminal, if the business allows anything bad to happen. Of course, the guilty will be severely punished, with investigations following civil suits.
Are you guilty or innocent? Life is complicated, but you can work out any exceptions with your congressman or senator, possibly along with a small campaign contribution for his/her good work.
Will big business oppose the CPSC? No, because adding these costs to retail sales is tolerable for large-batch retailers (the big stores), and of course kills the small-store competition. Big business also has an easier time presenting their case to congressmen.
Is big business the villain? I say No to the extent that they are only responding to the incentives that government has created, or Yes along with congress, to the extent that they collude to create the difficulties in the law that benefit both of them.
By this means, government standardizes and controls society. We all become "safer", buying more standardized goods at higher prices, with less means to compete (variety is waste).
Deaths and illness from lead ornaments and paints should be minimized. Possibly a notice should be attached to warn that ornaments have/haven't been tested, and let the consumer decide. Also know that the world is a dangerous place, with some death from every possible cause.
http://www.window-blind-cord-lawyers.com/Blind-Cord-Strangling.asp
"In 1973, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was formed. By 1981, CPSC studies indicate that the mini blind industry knew of at least 41 documented cases in which looped mini blind cords caused children to be strangled to death."
We are empowering/allowing our government to have complete control over us.
Andrew_M_Garland at January 21, 2009 10:55 AM
A brief digression: tax law is complex, and yet the IRS manages to explain what most people need to know in about 50 pages of text, in the IRS 40 instructions.
We are expect to obey the law. Laws should be written in equally accessible language.
Finally, to the point: one way to stop idiotic legislation might be to impose a specific limit on the total length of legislation.
- For all federal law applying to individuals, the equivalent of 4 novels, or about half-a-million words.
- For law applying to businesses, perhaps twice that, or a million words.
- For all other legislation, including all of their beloved earmarks, another million words.
All of it in language that anyone can understand, like the tax instructions. If they want to pass new legislation, then they must first eliminate old stuff...
bradley13 at January 21, 2009 12:14 PM
I've written and called. I own a small business that sells organic soaps and body care products. I used to sell other items, but we've pulled them because of this. We CAN'T afford to purchase the items @ wholesale cost any longer. The suppliers are already jacking up the prices beyond belief.
Truth at January 21, 2009 12:18 PM
One of the first things dictators do (just after disarming the populace and shutting down independent media) is criminalize everything that doesn't meet with the dictator's approval. That way, no one can avoid being a criminal at the whim of the authorities.
Increasingly, Congress is the dictator and we are the criminals. It might be close to time to take Jefferson and Madison's suggestion -- to alter or abolish any government that's abusive of the people's ends. It would probably start with mass defiance and civil disobediance and proceed from there.
However, I question how many people in modern-day soft America would have the belly for what would need to be done. So it's probably a moot point.
cpabroker at January 21, 2009 9:06 PM
Leave a comment