Congress Drives Toymakers Out of Business

In 2008, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Democrats passed this law in response to the 2007 lead-toy scare, and its intended aim was to scrub the lead from toys, bikes, and clothes that little children played with, and that is a good intention. But like most legislation the Democrats advocate full of good intention, the devil in the details creates unwelcome side effects- in this case, the Democrats effort to make toys safer has led to many toymakers laying off employees, cutting back on investments, lowering quality of their toys, and even being driven out of business.

That's the problem with Democrats legislation- the unintended consequences of it. In this case, the law bans products that contain led concentrations of 300 parts per million or more in places or areas that can be touched or accessed easily by children. In order to prove that a toy is lead-free, toymakers must spend anywhere from $300 to $4000 per produce in tests. This cost is not a big hurdle for the big toy companies, but is a big problem for small-batch, independent toymakers. Once again we see the effect of higher fees and regulations- small businesses, the engine of economic growth in our nation, are driven out of business, while the big business, donating large amounts of funding to the Democrats, gain in market share, all in the name of 'the children'.

Oh, I care about about the kids- that's why I trust good old-fashioned small businesses that are local and use quality methods- just the kind that are driven out of business by laws such as the one that the Democrats passed in Congress last year.

The law could also cause makers of essentially harmless products to move overseas to avoid the regulations. Let's say you make a bike, and the brake levers contain higher concentrations of lead in them- a company may decide to move their operations to another country rather than deal with the prohibitive regulations that Congress passes in the name of safety.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission gave small toymakers an extension until 2010 before complying with these safety regulations, but that's now, and so expect over the coming year for a lot of domestic small toymakers to be driven out of business by government regulations, and their market share to go to Chinese companies that were the ones that were caught putting the lead in the toys in the first place.

Legislation has consequences, and although good intentions matter, those consequences matter more. Elections have consequences too- in the future, vote Republican.