Blogging, CPSIA, and Bad Government Regulation

This morning, the Burlington Free Press had an article about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This is a perfect example of big government causing more problems than it solves.

It’s great that the press is finally covering this. The only problem? It goes into effect tomorrow.

There was virtually no reporting of the problems with this law by the news media until this month.  Blogs, on the other hand, have been fighting this thing hard since early December.

In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission granted a one year stay of the regulations in response to the concerns raised in large part on the internet.

I have been following this on craft blogs, Etsy (a handmade internet marketplace), facebook, and even twitter.

This law, as it is written, would have been disastrous to the small crafters.  Many families depend on the income generated by the craft businesses run by an at-home mom.  Under these regulations, which require expensive testing, most of those businesses would be forced to close.

I have always thought of blogging as a hobby and sort of an echo chamber where like-minded people talk about common interests, with little effect.  But, the Stop CPSIA movement really gained traction and the government responded, if only temporarily.

Perhaps, I was wrong.

The work to change CSPIA is not over.  For now, crafters have been spared from these burdensome government regulation that were designed to prevent any more poison toys from China, but it is not the end of the problem.

There are too many people in the government that do not take into account the negative consequences of this type of regulation.  Just as the federal education mandates created for inner-city schools do not work to serve our small rural schools in places like Vermont, expensive testing requirements meant to target large-scale manufacturers and importers hurt small, independent home-based crafting businesses.

One-size does not fit all.

Micro and small businesses are vital to our nation.  Not in the larger sense, where people are employed and large amounts of money changes hands, but in a smaller sense, where families are able to make ends meet and parents have the freedom to be involved in their children’s lives, while still contributing to the economic well being of the family.

The government needs to get smart about micro and small businesses.

For more on what’s wrong with CPSIA, here is a great post that sums up briefly the negative effects of this law on parents, environmentalists, loves of things handmade, second-hand shoppers, small businesses, antique toy collectors, and the economy.  If you fit into any of those groups, please take a look.