You would be outraged, and so would all people who value American principles.

But government economic regulation is based upon the same premise…the presumption of guilt. Rather than the government having the burden of proving wrong-doing or a law violation based upon actual evidence in a court of law, business men and women must prove their innocence at great cost to themselves of time and money. This is the premise of dictatorship, not a free country based upon the rule of objective law.

Multiply CPSIA a thousand-fold or more, and you realize the enormity of the burden American business must face. Sarbanes-Oxley is a classic example. It was passed in 2001, and imposed vast new regulatory burdens on all publicly traded companies in response to the Enron-Worldcom scandals. Thus, the thousands of innocent companies who didn’t cook the books were punished for the wrong-doing of the few.

Objective, clearly defined laws such as banning lead in toys are all that are needed. Just as a person can only be prosecuted for a burglary after having committed the crime and been proven guilty in a court of law based upon actual evidence of wrong-doing, so should the same principles apply to makers of toys. If lead is found in a product, deal with the producer and leave others alone.

CPSIA and all similar regulatory schemes are nothing more than the Doctrine of Original Sin applied to businessmen and are immoral, un-American, and unjust.

Moms Rising put up a super-easy action link. Here it is. Click Here to Send a Letter to CPSC

It’s quick and easy. Please forward it to all your friends.

In fact we have pulled together a business alliance just to address this issue because there are so many businesses – almost ALL owned by women – that will be impacted by this law.

None of the businesses in our area want to weaken the safety standards in the CPSIA. All of us, are committed to designing, creating and selling safe products.

But the fast timing of the CPSIA implementation has made the creation of rules and drafting of clarifications that better suits the full spectrum of businesses a challenge for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

If the CPSIA is not changed, it will push many small, local businesses out of the marketplace by creating an additional – and unnecessary- economic burden during these challenging times.

Please contact your legislators about this issue today, there is truly no time to waste. A form letter as well as contact information may be found here:

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/how-you-can-help

Thanks!

The Fuentes Family
Milagros Boutique
Portland, Oregon

But despite the threat of paying $300 per diaper I sell for testing certificates–because each diaper I make is unique, I don’t have bolt of fabric and make dozens of the same diaper–I’m not panicking, and I’m not signing internet petitions, and I’m certainly not calling on Barack Obama to lean on the CPSC for us.

Why, you may ask? Because there are trade associations and corporations from big to small working with the CPSC *right now* to work out the details on how this Act will be applied and enforced. It isn’t in the CPSC’s best interest to drive small business out, and this law wasn’t their–or any “big evil toymaking conglomerates”–idea at all. It was started by Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, and passed in both the House and Senate with great support by the Democrats. The CPSC was given the unfortunate job of making this law work, and they are *asking* for our help on that…why are we fighting them when they are *asking* for our comments, opinions, and ideas?!?

I don’t think this law is a bad thing, and I don’t think that small businesses who make children’s products should be fighting to have it overturned. We need to *work with* the CPSC. And the idea that presenting this complaint to Obama is going to do any good is ridiculous…the bill was sponsored by a Rep. from his own state, approved by his own party, and the goal is to protect children…even if the President were *able* to overturn an enacted law, why would he *want* to? Especially when the CPSC is already working with us on it.

The fact that so many people are blindly complaining about how proving provable safety for children is going to *cost them money* makes small businesses and natural products producers look like whiny, contrary people with something to hide. Let’s *prove* to the CPSC *why* our products are safe, instead of just shouting for exclusions based on our *saying* they’re safe.

(You should definitely link to this in the headline box at the top of the blog!)
(Y

Don’t forget this link as well.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

Change.org will be presenting the top 3 ideas in each category. This topic is #1 in Finance. Let’s keep it that way and hopefully this legislation can be amended so everyone can comply macro, small and micro businesses alike in a reasonable manner.