China Plot Revealed

In the midst of a third toy recall due to high levels of lead in Mattel Inc.'s China-made toys, another class of defective products has been discovered: condoms. The Washington Post reports:

"Tens of thousands of condoms provided free by the District to curb HIV-AIDS have been returned to the health department because of complaints that their paper packaging is easily damaged and could render the condoms ineffective."

It seems that in order to make up for profit losses due to toy recalls, China has cunningly instituted a plan to trick Americans into producing more offspring, which in turn will drive up toy sales – a quiet way to make up for lost revenue.

In all seriousness, the growing amount of recalls and the scare over Chinese imports is evidence of a larger problem. As China's economy continues to grow 10.5 percent this year and a United Nations report suggests the U.S. economy has slowed from 3.3 to 2 percent, it seems that the issue has to do with our fear of fighting for a piece of the global economic pie.

A Wall Street Journal piece explains that the problem isn't with safety standards, it is a problem with the United States not wanting to face global competition for the first time in recent history:

"It is a problem with the very fact of China as an emerging force on the global economic stage, and it underscores a profound and worrying trend in American political and economic life. For half a century we fought for the creation of a global capitalist system. Now that we have one, we seem to have forgotten one little thing: Capitalism means competition, and we are acting like we can't handle it."