You Get What You Pay For

Posted on July 13, 2007
by Maureen Keene

In the midst of a slew of stories of product recalls and dangerous goods coming from China, USA Today reports that China’s trade surplus is at an all time high. The imports are pouring in faster than ever and the safety checks are not keeping pace, yet we continue to buy. And the reason, naturally, is because the goods coming from China are cheap. China is cornering the market on drugs, electronics, food ingredients, and all manner of things by undercutting the rest of the world in price. There are costs, of course, that someone pays sooner or later. Right now it’s the workers in China who are making $2 a day (or nothing, if they have been forced into slave labor). And eventually it is the whole human race and every other creature on this earth because pollution is going unchecked in China as that country pursues economic growth at any cost.

But — here comes the tough love part – American consumers are complicit in this. We are the enabler. As long as we put dollars ahead of the quality and integrity of products we purchase in search of low, low prices, we are going to get what we pay for: shoddy (and in the worst cases life-threatening) merchandise. At some point we have to ask ourselves, what is the real cost of the things we buy — the cost to the people who make them, the cost to the planet in the process of producing them and getting them here from the other side of the world, and to our own health and safety?

In an effort to stay competitive — and entice us to buy from them, and buy more and still more – American companies have moved nearly all of their manufacturing operations overseas. So we get goods — really essential ones like food and medicine — that are made far outside of the oversight of our government and the big brand name companies we trust who are selling them to us. 99% of them come across our borders without inspection. And what do we get? Pet food that has a deadly chemical in it where the protein should be, toothpaste with a fertilizer ingredient that tastes sweet instead of the glycerin that is listed on the label, and kids toys that are coated in lead or that fall apart and pose all sorts of hazards.

Is this a bargain? Really??

As I have said previously, I am not advocating for economic protectionism. Some Chinese officials are blaming the “backlash” (until we stop buying, there is no backlash) against dangerous imports on protectionism and criticizing the media for hyping the story. But this is a real problem, and a growing one. Let’s consider the tens of thousands of dead cats and dogs to be the canaries in the coalmine and adjust our buying habits accordingly.

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