Toy Safety Hearing & China’s Role in it

As a former executive of a Global Wireless Telecommunications Company for over twenty years, I have a slightly different perspective on where the blame should be placed in regards to Quality Control & Consumer Safety.   I say Don’t Blame the Chinese!

Allow me to explain:

For twenty years I spent almost every day on the phone, at a client’s office, at a Trade Show around the world talking to customers in an attempt to understand why their wireless phone system does not work according to their expectations.  And the first question I always ask after hearing the proposed problem is, “What Brand of phone do you have”?  The answer I receive almost 100% of the time is, “Well it’s a GTE, a Sprint, an AT&T or a Verizon, etc…”  The American Consumer, as a whole, is completely unaware of the fact that their Wireless Carrier of choice does not manufacture the Wireless Phone that they use.  The phones those customers owned were all made by a manufacturer in the Telecommunications Industry hired by the Wireless Carriers to “Brand” a phone for them, to market to their end-users.

Let’s look at it from yet another point of view:  You own a Kenmore washer, dryer, or refrigerator and let’s say that you are of the belief that Sears/Kenmore actually made and/or manufactured your appliance, as many people unfortunately do.  However, Sears does not own a washer, dryer, or refrigerator manufacturing facility of any kind.  Here in lies the core of the problem; the American Consumer is being sold a “Bill of Goods”.

We, the American Consumer, have allowed companies such as Sears and many others to Market products to us that are actually made by a third party company (American or otherwise) very often unbeknownst to us as consumers.  American Consumers have been conditioned into to accepting this type of Branding and Marketing used by most Retailers and Manufactures today.  As a result, we are ultimately responsible for the current state of affairs that we now find ourselves in.  We, the American Consumers, have not held the Retailers and Manufactures accountable for their actions, which have allowed them to continuously take advantage of us.

Now let’s take a look at China:  China is and always has been a Third World Developing Country under the complete and total control of a Communist Government.  The overall population of China is, as most Third World Countries are, fundamentally uneducated and very, very poor.  Yet they are a very warm and very proud people with a deeply rich and historical culture. The Chinese are simply reaching out to the Western World with open arms, more than willing and able to help with the needs of Western Companies seeking to expand their labor needs.  The Chinese are willing pawns in our quest for cheap, unskilled labor, driven by the Greed of Corporate America.

Now back to the United States:  Roughly twenty years ago when the first American Company opened a factory in China, did we as American Consumers say anything to stop it?  No!  Instead we said “Wow look at the new low price, give me more!”  When the first American Factory Closed and Laid-Off American Workers because of the new plant in China, did we as American Consumers say anything?  No!  All we cared about is “Give us lots more for less”!

Now, here we are over twenty years later after the out-sourcing of American Jobs and the moving of American Companies to Third World Nations first began. We find ourselves with an American toy company, largest in the world, along with many, many other American companies now recalling its products that were all made in China.  Americans are watching the hearings in Washington D.C., where the U.S Government and the American toy company as well as all of the other companies, are all mad at the Chinese and blame them for OUR manufacturing and safety problems.

Let’s take a closer look at this for just one moment. 

A Communist Nation is being blamed for the problems of an American manufacturing company!  Placing sole responsibility onto a Third World Country and a largely uneducated society!  We hold them accountable for using lead paint on our toys & not using strong enough glue for our magnets etc… all the while doing so, as an employee of an American Factory.   At the end of the day, placing the blame onto China for our Quality Control issues is the equivalent of blaming a three year old child for touching a hot burner that we left unattended.  Regardless of how many M.O.U.’s (Memorandum of Understanding’s) that our government signs with different Nations not to do a particular something that we ask of them; if you are a Company, (American or otherwise,) doing business in the USA and regardless of where your products are made, China, India, or Timbuktu, you and you alone are responsible for its Quality. 

We must take responsibility for our own actions!  We, the American people have allowed those companies to leave, taking away our “American Jobs”, our “American Pride” and our “American Way of Life”. If things are ever going to change, ever going to get better, then we must take a stand for ourselves.  As American Consumers we must hold those responsible, accountable for their actions. And as American Consumers the only way to make them understand, is to refuse to buy their products until they change their ways.  Let’s face it; if Mattel’s Manufacturing Facilities were located in the United States we would not be having this particular conversation.  It’s time for a change!  We did our part as a Great Nation; we helped bring Communist China into the 21^st Century.   Now it’s time to bring those jobs back to America where they belong.