You live in Ireland, don't judge by local stores. Different locations are different.

 

You live in Ireland, don't judge by local stores. Different locations are different.

I didnt see any painted toys in Shibuya either.

 

Yes, most of the world was much better than the US at banning lead in paint. US Paint producers and Lead Carbonate producers fought a potential ban for 60 years! Even refusing to adopt a League of Nations international treaty in 1922.

http://www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/History+of+Lead+Use

Wikipedia is mostly US/Canada/UK centric. Only shows that Canada is less concerned about health than the US (a rare situation).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_paint
.

Year

Event

1887

US medical authorities diagnose childhood lead poisoning

1904

Child lead poisoning linked to lead-based paints

1909

France, Belgium and Austria ban white-lead interior paint

1914

Pediatric lead-paint poisoning death from eating crib paint is described

1921

National Lead Company admits lead is a poison

1922

League of Nations bans white-lead interior paint; US declines to adopt

1943

Report concludes eating lead paint chips causes physical and
neurological disorders, behavior, learning and intelligence problems in
children

1971

Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act passed

1978

Lead-based house paint banned

 

Although I agree with many of the sentiments expressed here, I think this is a political discussion, albeit international politics, and should be locked.

 

In general... there is "labor" (cost for employees labor), material costs, and "overhead" (everything else)

In general...
Overhead in most companies in the US and other countries is vastly different from "overhead" in China.
Overhead is included in the cost of a product..
As counterfeit products are all over too material costs can be much lower
When both labor + material+ overhead = small number.. Price is cheap
When labor + material+ overhead = larger number.. Price is more.
Plain and simple.

 

LEDs sold by US companies have been made in Taiwan in the 1970s already, same as for Intel, Texas Instruments and so on- Phillipines, Mexico, Malaysia, all this happened in the 1970s already.

Where is the point you are trying to make with so-called US manufacturing?