American-Made for the Holidays by Shawn Dell Joyce on Creators.com

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American-Made for the Holidays

Americans, already cash-strapped from a sagging economy, are shelling out more than $22.9 million dollars this holiday season to buy toys for lucky little girls and boys. This $22.9 million would make a sweet bailout for U.S. toy manufacturers — if we actually had any. Unfortunately, most of that money is already on its way to China, where almost all toys that are commercially available in big-box stores are manufactured.

Chinese-produced toys are far cheaper than their American-made counterparts, but are they worth it? More than 60 percent of the recalls issued this year and 79 percent of toys recalled last year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission were from China. But those products were just a tiny drop in the flood of 17 million shipments of everything from Chinese organic produce to medicines and house wares.

The flood of consumer goods from China has nearly tripled since 1997, and the number of recalls has grown proportionately. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is deluged by this flood. The FDA has only 1,317 field investigators for 320 ports of entry. The agency inspects just 0.7 percent of all imports, half of what it did a decade ago. David Acheson, an assistant commissioner for food protection at the FDA, points out that it would be impossible to test all imports from China. "It's got to be based on risk," says Acheson.

And risky it is. Just ask the 100 Panamanians who died using cough syrup made in China with diethylene glycol (mislabeled as glycerin). Or the people who were injured from ingesting tainted seafood, slipping on faulty swimming pool ladders, or in auto accidents caused by shoddy Chinese-made tires. Even worse are the homes lost to fires caused by faulty electrical wiring in Chinese-made lighting, extension cords and heaters. China has even reintroduced lead poisoning to American children through paint and metal on cheap toys.

"After discovering that a toy I purchased for my grandson was recalled in May," said Sen.

Richard Durbin, D-Ill., during a 2007 Senate hearing, "I asked myself the same question parents across the country are asking today: Who is in charge?" Durbin was disturbed to learn that one employee at the CPSC is responsible for testing toys and ensuring toy safety throughout the country. He is sponsoring legislation to expand the CPSC.

Last summer, China quietly surpassed the United States as the world's top polluter. China has no real environmental safeguards in place to protect drinking water from contaminants, no labor laws to keep children out of sweatshops and no legal ethics to keep entrepreneurs from producing dangerous products. In addition, our communities suffer financially when we buy imports over locally made goods. When we opt for a cheaper import, our dollars flow out of our community and fund a system that degrades people and the planet. Our small businesses suffer, manufacturing jobs leave, and we find ourselves with boarded-up storefronts in our downtowns. This economic exodus further devalues our currency and increases the demand for "cheap."

A recent economic study conducted in Austin, Texas, found that if each household in Travis County redirected just $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores (carrying cheap imports) to locally owned merchants, the economic impact would reach approximately $10 million. Imagine what $10 million could do for your community.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, N.Y. You can contact her at Shawn@ShawnDellJoyce.com. To find out more about Shawn Dell Joyce and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.