"Hailed almost universally on its passage last year--it passed the Senate 89 to three and the House by 424 to one, with Ron Paul the lone dissenter--CPSIA is now shaping up as a calamity for businesses and an epic failure of regulation, threatening to wipe out tens of thousands of small makers of children's items from coast to coast, and taking a particular toll on the handcrafted and creative, the small-production-run and sideline at-home business, not to mention struggling retailers. How could this have happened?"
"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."
The rest of the article here.
2 comments:
Thanks for posting this. I find it amazing that only one congressman and three senators had the foresight to see the HUGE GLARING problems in this act. Was reform needed? Absolutely. Too bad it came in such myopic, poorly planned legislation.
I agree- how could they miss what this would do to the economy, for one thing? Another thing baffling me is why the media didn't pick up on this earlier, and why it still doesn't seem to be getting major attention only a short time before it goes into effect.
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