Reliance on Products made in China

While discussing the recent recalls of toys and bibs manufactured in China, my husband pointed out that probably 100% of the toys that we own and most of our clothes were manufactured there. Journalist and author Sara Bongiorni, her husband and two children went a full year without buying anything manufactured in China. Bongiorni wrote about her experience in her book, A Year Without Made in China

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20303002/site/newsweek/page/2/

Could you do it?

Comments

[Lisa]

We've been following this so heavily...not just because we're parents and concerned about our daughter's health, but because our daughter (and future child) are from China. In the comments on many news reports, I'm seeing a lot of anti-China sentiment, and it makes me so concerned about how my children will be treated by people on the street.

While many people lay the blame for this entirely on the Chinese, there's blame to go around: there's a complete lack of oversight by American companies who use cheap labor from abroad, and a lack of policing from government organizations who are supposed to inspect imported goods. And of course, the fact that Americans love to buy a lot of goods and at the cheapest prices. So our companies don't manufacture here, where they'd have to pay a decent living wage, and instead pay pennies a day to people halfway across the world, and don't care how corners are cut to achieve the products we want.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.