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The toy safety debate gets really dumb and a little scary
November 2, 2007
“If I were president, I'd shut down any imports from China, period, in terms of their toys — flat shut it down. . . " Senator Joe Biden, October 30, 2007 Democratic debate when asked what he would do about toys imported from China
Well, it looks like Senator Biden is no longer running for President. He is now running for Grinch. After all, he not only proposes to, in one fell swoop, put the toy industry out of business, but to end Christmas as well. Pretty neat trick when you can do that in one sentence.
Well, needless to say, he won’t get the toy industry vote. Nor, I am sure, will he get the little kid vote. What is he trying to do when he makes a radical statement like that?
He’s trying to get votes. It’s the kind of thing you say to pull some voters your way, in this case worried parents and economic protectionists, but it sure makes for terrible policy.
Is anyone taking this guy on? Is anyone challenging these kinds of statements and injecting a dose of reality into the debate?
I have argued in the past in favor of having an industry think tank that will provide statistics and position papers so that when someone makes a dangerous and intemperate statement like Senator Biden, the toy industry has a rapid response. In fact, with such an institution, the toy industry could work with political candidates in both parties to provide the kind of information they need to take intelligent positions on issues that affect our industry.
Like it or not, we are fodder for Campaign 2008. We can’t afford to sit it out.
Posted by Richard Gottlieb on November 2, 2007 | Comments (3)
