But Shipping's Included! (Part II)

I had to share Emily's response to my last blog. She points out that there are other similar sites addressing the new cost of children's items. See http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=cpsia&search_type=tag_title&page=1&order=price_desc&min=&max=. This site is hilarious but sad. The problem of ruined price points and ruined businesses is still unrecognized by Congress. No one wants to face this looming reality, all because of the marketing of the CPSIA as a needed "improvement" in safety regulation. The $4,200 children's bib on Etsy is not considered a counter-argument because, darn it, we need to be "safe". This abstract, spiritual use of the word "safe" is deeply distressing to me. If people believe safety is something abstract, as though it were a kind of window onto the soul and a measure of some sort of morality, then industrial efforts to produce safety will become completely diffuse and unfocused. Safety surveillance only works if it homes in on real, known, actual risks. If we scatter our resources over all sorts of imaginary, paranoid illusions of potential risks, there will little energy left for the real problems. We cannot afford this frivolous exercise. Please keep screaming!

Rick