30 October 2007

Thanks but no thanks

The US Congress is trying to give the country's Consumer Product Safety Commission to take on a significantly increased budged, hire more staff (now that they've finally managed to get rid of most what they had) and try to do a better job of protecting American consumers but acting Commissioner Nancy Nord is having none of that and has quite unequivocally told Congress to keep the money. Ms. Nord's reticence is not surprising from someone who has worked only on one side of the corporate - consumer dialectic. (Guess which side! Go on!)

After all if the CPSC worked harder and found more toys full of lead what would be left to give to America's darling (and not at all overweight) children this Xmas! We should just leave product safety in the hands of those who know best - the business owners and their actuaries who can make appropriate, market driven decisions based on the trade offs between the cost of settling lawsuits and lost sales/higher costs.

No comments: