Illegal Baby Booties For Sale? Someone Alert Congress!!

The video below is heartbreaking for a number of reasons. First, the store owner is unaware of how government regulations affect her business, until the realities of bad legislation actually slap her in the face, finding their way to the products she sells.

She even admits she was wholly in favor of the government-legislated tighter standards for toys, until it started costing her valuable business opportunities. She runs a shop called Eco-Baby which offers a wide variety of organic, recycled, baby clothes and toys. I'm guessing she thought the trickle-down of such regulation would make her store more popular, since she sells the safest toys of all! Of course, she may not have understood that the the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act would potentially destroy her business, because it sounds so benign. Who could be against improving consumer safety?

But another reason this is gut-wrenching is that this woman is doing something wonderful, her customers love her products and together they should be allowed to engage in any kind of transaction they choose without the government interfering! I hate that this woman cannot sell her lovely organic booties without the threat of jailing! In fact when I get pregnant I would probably love to look up her store and buy her stuff - and most likely won't be able to. This is the great tragedy of government intervention.

I understand that some people are more comfortable with government regulation of products, and they should never be denied that right. However, the rest of us who are confident in making decisions about toy purchases shouldn't be subject to the same rules.

I think an adequate solution to this problem, instead of making baby-booties illegal, would be to have a sticker saying, "These booties have not been triple-tested meeting the CPSIA-suggested criteria, blah, blah, blah." Or the organic wood blocks from Germany could have a sticker saying, "These blocks meet EU safety standards, but not US, blah, blah, blah." People still have powers of discernment that should allow them to shop at Eco-Baby of their own free will. Seriously.

But it's not all bad news. I for one, am prepared to make a killing on the black market for eco-friendly baby toys.

Want More? , ,

2 Comments:

  1. Interesting enough, these same people made a killing last year when the lead scare was in full-force, and people swarmed to the handmade and 'eco friendly' toys. This year, they're now being run out due to not being able to afford the same testing as the larger corporations.

    Your idea of a compromise, while it makes sense on one level, completely defeats the purpose of testing to begin with. If it's voluntary, and no one does it, then what good it is at all?

    (And FYI: The loophole is to sell them as novelty items, and not toys.)
    ReplyDelete
  2. @Norcross - My idea doesn't defeat the purpose of testing at all. My idea isn't even that original, I'm just mentioning a model successfully used all the time, which is why it is pretty much proven to work on the voluntary basis you are skeptical of.

    The government, or an independent body can make a set of standards, and products complying can identify themselves as such. This happens all the time. Like with toothpaste that is approved by the American Dental Association. You can still buy toothpaste that isn't. Or pretty much everything organic. It is not government regulated, but because of the influx of things claiming to be organic watering down quality standards, a group got together, created a logo that signifies a certain level of quality, and viola, they get more market share for being more legit.

    Independent ratings from J.D. Powers, Good Housekeeping, Consumer Reports, or heck, even Oprah, are similar examples where companies "comply" to standards that are not enforced by law, but demanded by people who buy products, or trust the opinions of Oprah or other independent bodies.
    ReplyDelete

I'm curious to see what you are thinking...

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)