Cheap, Dangerous Toys Bought with Expensive Credit Cards

Nothing we've covered at TheDailyGreen.com exceeds in intensity the interest our readers have in our coverage of the lead-laced toys scandal. So for all you parents out there wondering what to buy your kids this year for Christmas and Hanukkah, I have a couple of little factoids for you today certain set your teeth on edge. Plus, a bunch of other toys for you to consider, but that comes later.

Did you know that of the 12 hottest toys of Christmas 2007 (according to something called Toy Wishes magazine), 11 of them were made in China? The 12th? Who knows? It's for older kids and apparently no one cares if toys for them carry country of origin labels or not.

That's right. Fun for the very littlest and most dependent members of our families has been offshored to places like China, where it is apparently customary to lace toothpaste w/ antifreeze and slather lead paint on toys.

In our charge for the cheapest stuff, we...and it's not just the manufacturers, it's us, too...have contracted out Christmas to the lowest bidder. Which in the case of toys, mostly means manufacturers in China.

But here's the irony.

All those cheap toys? Often bought with credit cards charging insanely high interest rates and late fees that go up to $39 a month. So the price of these toys might appear to be low, by the time they're paid for in, say, seven years, they really cost a bundle.

So, how's this working out for us?

• Lead-laced toys flooding the market.
• Lost manufacturing jobs.
• Maxed-out credit cards.
• Environmental mayhem shipping stuff from China to Chattanooga.
• Lead-poisoned kids with potential neurological damage.

You can't make this stuff up.

America, it's time to take back our holidays.

Buy less, pay more. Sounds crazy? Turns out it could be the cheapest, safest way to celebrate the holidays this season.