Should Mattel see Red (Ink)This Christmas?

Mattel has been in the news for months as stories of inferior, poorly constructed toys made in China and imported by the giant toy maker were recalled for everything from magnets falling off to lead paint, to poor engineering. Mattel, who one would think would prefer to have these stories at anytime but just before the Christmas season begins, has publicly apologized. The problem is they haven't  apologized to us. Instead Debrowski, in a dog and pony show that would make even the most blatant propagandist blush, has apologized to the Chinese government.

The Mattel executive sat in front of the Chinese ministry of product safety and publicly stated that his company takes full responsibility for the recalls and wishes to accept the full blame for these potentially dangerous toys landing on American store shelves. The mea culpa, which is pure bunk, shows just how infirmly entrenched in the Chinese capitalist system the toy maker has become.

China, which is under fire for shoddy products, including food, toothpaste and inferior building materials as well as the ethically questionable production of forgeries of American antique glassware, made a huge news story about the Americans being wrong and how Chinese products are of a high quality with only design flaws by Mattel being the problem with their toys. Such sensationalist gibberish will play in a country where leadership can say the sky is made of rice and the populace will take it as gospel but it won't play in a country where people are still allowed to think for themselves.

Analysts confirm that Mattel has outsourced 65% of their production to this dictatorial country to the point they can ill afford to have the Chinese government on their backs. The regime that has little red tape compared to the American system can shut down the source of product to Mattel with just a day's notice and this has the company on edge. Perhaps what they need to realize is that their country of corporate origin; the country whose jobs they sent overseas yet who they still expect to buy their junk when it is delivered back to us might not be as accepting as they would hope.

China is on a mission to try and bring their outrageous statements of high quality coming out of their factories as reality. The country, which has low labor costs, poor working conditions and almost no economic benefits to their workforce population are pushing their fallacy that their country's products are world class. The problem is as more and more companies, like Mattel begin to rely completely on their third world manufacturing system, China can get away with saying anything because to question them means the spigot of profits gets turned off. And profits is what this is all about.

Although Mattel's stock price has remained fairly stable the key market force of whether or not Mattel will face the wrath of investors is just around the corner. The Christmas season which dictates an astounding 70% of total yearly toy sales in America is about to start.

The question is will Americans, fed up with manufacturers such as Mattel outsourcing jobs finally look at where the toys are made and gravitate towards those Made in America or will we continue to shoot ourselves in the economic foot by just grabbing whatever looks good and has a cheap price.

Price isn't just about saving money. You get what you pay for in your cars, your appliances and even your food. You also get what you pay for in your toys and right now what that gets you is another inferior toy and another lost American job.