Screwed Again! Can I Get a Cigarette?

There is only one thing worse than being bent over and raped. That is being bent over and raped by someone that expects you to not only be grateful to them but to also believe it was for your own good! That is how I have grown to see government and it's desire to control and regulate our lives and productivity. One big sexual predator running around forcing itself upon any person it deems necessary in the goal of spreading decay and poverty...err, I mean safety and prosperity.

Once again, government has stepped in to do economic harm to the very people it claims to protect all under the very stale guise of looking after the little man. As you may recall, the Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008 was passed last year in response to numerous cases of unsafe toys being sold in America. It brought about tighter regulations that required manufacturers of goods geared towards children to be tested for various toxic ingredients by independent and government approved labs. This law went into effect earlier this year.

For the sake of this piece, we will have to make one huge assumption being that the majority of the goods covered under this regulation are plastic. We will assume there is a safe and non-toxic manner to combine multiple toxic ingredients and run them through the toxic process that results in plastic. If we ignore the idiocy of this belief that plastic can even be safe in the first place, we will be able to move on.

If we go back into the recent past and study the cases that brought about this new law, we will see that many of them had something quite significant in common. Whether we consider the recalls of Barbie, Cars, Dora the Explorer or Sesame Street toys, we see that the majority of them were manufactured by either Mattel or one of it's subsidiaries. In fact, Mattel was such a large offender that they were issued a $2.3 million fine in 2007 over the use of lead based paint.

Now, considering that Mattel was responsible for the bulk of the tainted toys found, you may think they were the target of the new legislation. Of course, considering the corrupt nature of government, you would be wrong. As of now, toy manufacturers are required to submit their toys to government approved labs for testing at hefty prices. Recently, a new provision has been approved that renders an exemption to this requirement.

For large corporations such as Mattel, these added costs may be of only minimal concern. However, consider the numerous small companies that manufacture goods aimed at children. Think of your favorite educational toy that is not made by a mega-corporation. These small, often family owned, operations have one of two options when faced with these unplanned for expenses. Downsize and risk going out of business or raise prices and still risk going out of business. Nice set of choices!

Now that it is the holiday season, many of you are surely shopping around for toys. Perhaps you have noticed an increase in toy prices. A quarter here and a dollar there. Many companies are being hurt by the restrictive new law which of course eventually trickles down to both the employee and the consumer. Ironically enough, one company will no longer be suffering courtesy of a new provision that was recently added to the regulation.

After spending over $1 million in lobbyist fees, Mattel is now exempt from having to have it's products tested by independent and government approved labs. They, and only they, are now able to do their own testing internally. Labs have been authorized and established in Mexico, China, Malaysia and California. So, the very company that caused the crisis that gave us this new regulation will now be exempt from it. Like they say, money talks!

So, now Mattel will be able to sit back and watch as many small competitors are slowly ran out of business. Yet another case of the true purpose of government regulation being exposed for what it essentially is....corporate welfare. Small companies will likely go out of business which will result in increased unemployment and us consumers will have fewer options on the shelves and higher prices. On the bright side, our children will be safer! Wait, the company that caused all this will still be doing it's own safety testing. Testing that is now government approved and indisputable. Well, I am sure there is a bright side somewhere.

If you are as pessimistic about government as I am, you may actually consider this to have been planned out between Mattel and the bill's sponsoring politicians. However, considering the initial sponsor of this regulation was Congressman Bobby Rush, I would say that was unwarranted. I doubt that much foresight was used and this was nothing more than the result of good old fashioned corruption. If nothing else, there are two things government excels at, coercion and corruption.

Well, now that I have been screwed once again by government, I am still wondering where that cigarette is! Then again, maybe they are looking out for my health and are waiting until the next screwing to give it to me.