"Jacob Kramer" wrote in message
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"Michael McKelvy" wrote in message
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"Jacob Kramer" wrote in message
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On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 06:18:32 GMT, "Michael McKelvy"
wrote:


"Jacob Kramer" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 02:10:06 GMT, "Michael McKelvy"
wrote:

Laisez Faire, thank you.

Yes bring back child labor and 12-hour workdays! Fire escapes and
safety guards for machinery? Who needs em!

Any business owner who wouln't want to be sued.

They couldn't be sued if there were laissez-faire.

You are mistaken.

They wouldn't be
guilty of anything if there were no child labor laws or regulations of
workplace safety.

Nobdoy can be forced to work anyplace they don't think is safe. Nobody
can
be forced to do an unsafe task.

Child labor laws are the same. Nobody can force anybody to work. There
are
however situations where tasks are suitable for children to perform and
get
paid.

I would rather myself and my children work than create a monstrosity
like
the welfare state.

Here are some of the miracles of the unregulated free market in newly
liberalizing China:


That you compare China to the U.S. is a symtom of your disconnect from
reality.

May 5, 2004
Infants in Chinese City Starve on Protein-Short Formula
By JIM YARDLEY

UYANG, China, April 29 - The containers were sealed in plastic, each
filled with baby formula that Zhang Linwei and his wife fed to their
tiny daughter. Over time, as the baby ate more formula, her cheeks
grew fat as balloons, seemingly a sign of good health. Only later did
her parents learn it was a sign of starvation.

Their 5-month-old baby, Rongrong, died last August after doctors told
her parents that the low-cost milk powder they had been using was
fake.

And you don't think theis sort of thing would be actionable here?

They and hundreds of other parents here in central China unwittingly
bought bad formula, in which nutritional supplements had been replaced
with starch or sugar. Nearly 200 other babies, including at least 13
who died, now have what local residents call "big head disease."

It is a local scam that has resonated into a nationwide scandal, a
cruel reminder of how China's problem with fakes and counterfeits
extends far beyond knockoff brand clothes and pirated DVD's. With new
products filling shelves, consumer protection is often nonexistent,
particularly in the poorest regions, which often become dumping
grounds for cheap, unregulated goods.

Food safety is a recurring problem, with regular reports of poisonings
at school cafeterias and restaurants. Yet the baby formula scandal has
become blaring news in this nation of doting parents because of its
predatory, venal quality: manufacturers, unhindered by government,
reaped profits by marketing useless powder for infants.

"At the hospital, when I learned they couldn't save my baby I couldn't
help crying," Mr. Zhang said. "These babies are really innocent.
Whatever you give them to eat and drink, they will take it."

The scandal was publicized in a report on state television on April
19, and the next day Prime Minister Wen Jiabao sent a special
investigation team here. Officials arrested at least 22 people
involved in making and selling the formula.

Investigators blamed illegal manufacturers throughout China for the
problem and reported that 45 brands sold in Fuyang and elsewhere were
substandard. But as the government-controlled news media hailed
Beijing's response, another fact became known. Reports of the problem
had been percolating in Fuyang for almost a year without any
significant action being taken. A few parents like Mr. Zhang had even
pressed local disease control officials to test packets of formula.
His packet contained only 2 percent protein; the national standard is
about 12 percent.

Yet officials here in Anhui Province did not remove the fake formula
from the stores until April, after Prime Minister Wen ordered his
investigation, according to local parents and national media reports.
What is unclear is whether local officials knowingly allowed the
powder to be sold, perhaps for kickbacks. Officials in Fuyang declined
repeated telephone requests for interviews.

"Poor government administration is a key here," said Zhang Shouli, a
rural affairs advocate and market researcher who has traveled around
Fuyang. "Unless the government steps in, there are always people who
will produce those products."

When companies like this are sued out of existence they tend to go away.
There would be scores of lawyers lining up to take such cases.

Located in the impoverished wheat belt of central China, Fuyang is a
gritty railroad center with a reputation for corruption and little
government oversight. A former mayor was recently executed on charges
of corruption, including taking bribes. A local airport built at
enormous cost sits virtually unused.

The city also has many wholesale markets selling illegal or
substandard products.

So the laws meant to stop this aren't being enforced, and your solution is
what, more laws?

Zhang Linwei, the father, lives in one of the
villages outside Fuyang, where he earns about $60 a month making
bricks at a kiln.

His daughter Rongrong was born in March 2003, and since his wife, Liu
Li, could not produce enough breast milk, he began spending about $11
a month on formula. They chose a low-cost brand recommended by a
friend, and his daughter consumed a container every two or three days.

But when Rongrong was 4 months old she developed skin rashes, and her
face swelled. Alarmed, Mr. Zhang and his wife took her to an
unlicensed doctor, who did little.

They tried another brand of formula, but the baby refused to eat it.
Two weeks later they took her to the main hospital in Fuyang, where
doctors say her body was so underdeveloped that they could not find a
usable vein for a transfusion.

"The doctor said the baby had malnutrition due to milk powder," Mr.
Zhang recalled. After a week in the hospital, doctors told him to take
her home. She died the next day.

"She didn't grow," Mr. Zhang said. "From birth to death she had almost
no increase in weight."

Ms. Liu, the mother, collapsed in shock when her daughter died. "I'm
very sad," she said. "I didn't know this milk was bad."

The problem is concentrated in Fuyang, but sick babies have also been
reported in Beijing and in the southern city of Guangzhou. Government
news media reported that a spot check of baby formula in stores in
populous Guangdong Province had found that 33 percent of the brands
did not meet national standards. Some brands tested in Fuyang had less
than 1 percent protein.

The scandal has already brought calls for greater regulation, and the
official news media have reported that China's highest prosecutorial
agency intends to open a nationwide investigation of rampant
counterfeit products.

But such initiatives would require a level of accountability that is
often lacking.

It requires law enforcement. It requires people assume some responsibilty
for their lives.

An immediate problem, exposed during the outbreaks of
SARS and avian influenza, is that China's Food and Drug Administration
has little real regulatory power.

They had enough to lie about it and to quarentine people when the lies
became known.

A nationwide survey last year of 2,000 food products found that almost
20 percent did not meet national health standards.

Once again nothing to with Laisez Faire, but with enforcement.

In March, the state
news media reported that of the 106,000 food companies in China, only
17,900 were licensed.

Most of all, consumers rarely feel empowered to complain.

We don't have that problem.

"Local farmers and peasants don't know to pursue their rights," said
Gao Zheng, a local resident whose persistent efforts to push officials
in Fuyang helped publicize the scandal.

One of the penalties for not having a free press.

Mr. Gao, whose infant niece was hospitalized last year, said he had to
pay for local officials to test his baby formula and prove it was
fake. Earlier this year, he said, a local consumer protection official
arranged for a series of meetings with a baby formula distributor to
discuss reimbursing. But he said the meetings had been fruitless.

Outside the main People's Hospital in Fuyang, Zhu Wen, a migrant
worker, waited with his wife and their infant son. The baby's head was
swollen from months of taking Good Baby milk formula.

The father said the child's hair had fallen out and pointed to the
scaly, irritated skin on his son's scalp. He used Good Baby because it
cost half the price of other brands.

"These companies are taking advantage of our poverty," Mr. Zhu said in
a later interview away from the hospital. "They should be punished or
executed."

He said his family was still paying off other medical debts and could
not afford to take their son to a hospital when he first became sick.
This week they went to People's Hospital because of reports that sick
babies would receive free care. But he said doctors had told him he
must pay $120, almost two months' wages.

He was waiting to see if someone would help him. If not, he said his
only recourse would be to return home.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Thank you for the irrelevant propaganda piece.