OMH! The very company that started the government down the path to this draconian law that threatens ordinary citizens who want to sell their used children’s clothes, books and toys at flea markets and yard sales, small business who sell……

There are advantages and disadvantages to being a big business.  One that fits on both sides of the ledger is the relationship that big business has with the government.  When a company get past a certain size, it welcomes attention from the governme…

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ — Ronald Reagan Unlike liberals, conservatives tend to be reluctant to create new regulations. In part, that’s because we consider governm…

/sarcasm

Pretty soon, there might not be much good left in this country to defend.

There is not, and never has been any evidence that the pthalates in children’s toys caused a problem for anyone.

Ed, I really don’t like this legislation, and certainly feel for this woman and others in a similar situation, but – with all due respect to both you and she – at $4500 gross revenue, and with the number of units she ‘manufactures’, “hobbyist” probably describes her better than “small business owner”.

I’m surprised there’s not an exclusion in the bill (maybe they could handle it that way) to allow folks at her level of production an exemption.

Midas on August 22, 2009 at 12:45 PM

.
Hell they’re going after garage sales now. It will only get worse.

CPSIA is poorly thought out. It was rushed through congress like a cure for plague with a lot of “subject ignorant” politicians bobbbling their heads like lemmings. There’s been a lot of complaint from the manufacturing sector about this law but this type of regulation takes a lot of scrutiny and work and congress is backing out the back door. What’s new?

Put it out there. Let industry do the washing. Well, it’s not going to work this time.

So, in essence, the new law, regardless of the authors intentions, held in its bowels, “a death panel.”

I’m just saying…

archer52 on August 23, 2009 at 7:31 AM

I agree except that I consider the effects to be intentional.

I don’t think the lawyers who are serving as our senators and reps. don’t know what they’re doing. The lead & melamine “Crisis” caused by large corporations subbing out to Chinese manufacturers results in a law which eliminates their smaller competitors. The very companies that killed our cats and poisoned our kids is profiting from this law.

That’s not an accident. That’s the epitome of not “letting a good crisis go to waste”. We are being ruled by a fascist government.

So, in essence, the new law, regardless of the authors intentions, held in its bowels, “a death panel.”

I’m just saying…

“In the former case, all local authorities are subordinate to the supreme; and may be controlled, directed, or abolished by it at pleasure. In the latter, the local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general authority, than the general authority is subject to them, within its own sphere…It is true that in controversies relating to the boundaries between the two jurisdictions, the tribunal which is ultimately to decide, is to be established under the general government.”

Now, I, in other places have commented on the need for a third legislative body, the Tribunate, with myriad powers and roles that I will not go into here. It in general had no role in the legislative process. However, as an idea, I propose to modify my original proposal by having the Tribunate rule on whether or not the other two branches should proceed with pieces of legislation—i.e. do they have the power to do so, or should they do so.

Since I see the Tribunate as putting states back into the mix by the way its members are appointed/elected, it would involve both legal and political questions of whether or not the other two branches should pursue legislation that might be best handled on the state level, and thus does not merely replicate the Supreme Court’s role in determining Constitutionality.

The Tribunate would thus act like the legislative equivalent of the grand jury, killing legislation that Congress has no business being involved in by ruling it out of bounds of the Congressional portfolio. It would otherwise have no role in the legislative process.

Like I said, an idea in progress…

On a small scale this means taxi cab companies support ordinances that require expensive hack licenses and prohibit jitney and car services.

On a big scale it’s Mattel and China Inc. that get to write the laws to shaft small toy companies.

I have a small embroidery shop, I suppose the CPSIA means I can’t embroidery baby bibs or blankets without testing the rayon or polyester thread for lead.

This is a feature, not a bug. The regulators and statists want to make it impossible to start your own company, earn your own income, and stay off the grid as much as you can. They want to kill small businesses. That’s why Obama wants to tax successful small business owners and tax estates.

“In the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its juridstiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be obtained by the seperate provisions of any. The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all those other objects which can be seperately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity.”

In short, laws like CPSIA often exist because activists, rather than attempting the much harder effort of trying to use logic and reason to persuade their fellow citizens of the superiority of their solution state by state, have decided that only a majority of 535 need to be concerned with the affair.

A Republic of 300 million will not long exist if every daily aspect of life is to be regulated by such a small number of individuals.