Chinese manufacturers are bunch of douchebags. They apparently don't give a shit about killing the people they sell their products to. In fact, there are have been WAY more Chinese product recalls than you are probably aware of just in the past year. I'm sure you've heard of the lead paint on toys, the exploding tires, and anti-freeze in tooth paste and cough syrup. There have even been rumors of anti-freeze turning up in babyfood imported to the UK but I was unable to find confirmation. Even without that, the averaged 10 deadly Chinese product group recalls a month from the first 6 months of 2007 says enough.

Even if HALF... no.. even if TWO THIRDS of those links from that site are bogus, that's STILL WAY TO FUCKING MANY RECALLS FROM CHINA! And how does this happen? Why China? Is it just recent media attention? Has it always been this bad? I fucking hope not, but if it has it's about time we got the media attention. Although I'd have to think that the most recent story of a toxic Chinese product that put two kids in a fucking coma would have made news even if our interest weren't already perked. (editors note: The above link also mentions a lead paint toy recall. This should not be confused with the earlier lead paint toy recalls from this summer. This is ANOTHER lead paint recall several months later. Both from China.)

So, again, why is this happening? Why mostly from China and not other countries? A couple reasons... First China doesn't really fucking care. They're getting money. And, really, I don't think they give a shit if their products kill their own people, so why would they care if they killed ours? They have to be one of the most corrupt and oppressive governments in existence. They never had "non-toxic" playdough when they were growing up like we did. They apparently had toys that metabolized into date rape drugs instead. Why would they think our culture was any different? You've got a country that is an emerging world power and most of it's citizens are still living 3rd world lives. There is something seriously fucked about that. How are we to expect companies from China to not be corrupt, and workers in China to give a fuck if they accidentally mislabel antifreeze? They don't even have an indoor toilet. The government obviously doesn't care. They can pussy-whip Google and censor every word said by anybody, but they can't keep enough of an eye on their exports to prevent sending out 10 DEADLY NEW PRODUCTS A MONTH? That's bullshit! They just don't want prices to go up due to regulation because that would send US companies looking somewhere else.

Which brings me to the US companies... Oh yes, our good friends in corporate America, always ready to issue a recall when it turns out that their outsourced products might just kill enough people to open them up to nasty litigation, BUT NOT A MOMENT SOONER! Those snotty little brats who weren't paying attention when their Mommies said "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Those happy little corporations who apparently don't think that it's a bad thing that 80% of our Vitamin C comes from a country that has proved to be REALLY BAD at not putting poison into things. Not to mention the fact the China isn't our best friend in the first place - combine that with their horrible corruption (and ours) and you have a recipe for a disaster. If you were a terrorist, and you wanted to poison an assload of people in the US, would you come here to do it? No, you'd go to fucking China where you could pretty much walk into any company (provided you have enough money for bribes) and drop whatever the fuck you want into the product being sent over here. (I hear antifreeze is popular one for these guys 'cause it tastes so yummy. They want us to die with a smile on our face.)

Now, I'm not saying this has happened. But you all have to agree that it could. But who has time to worry about a deliberate attack when there are so many fucking accidents anyway? But oh shit, we don't want prices to rise, do we? We can't have our corporations crack down on their Chinese suppliers because then prices might rise. And if prices rise we might buy less, and if that happens the fat cats get fewer jets, and if they have fewer jets then OMGZORS RECESSION OH SHITZ0RZ!!1