Stimulus? U.S. to buy Chinese condoms, ending Alabama jobs

[katty]

(US can't even make a condom anymore...Chinese condoms...what could be more reliable)

more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/64577.html

Stimulus? U.S. to buy Chinese condoms, ending Alabama jobs
By Mike McGraw | Kansas City Star
Call it a condom conundrum.

At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products?

In this case, Chinese condoms.

That's the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world.

But not anymore.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. Chinese condoms?

Expect pregnancy rates & STDs to go up.

[Ilsa]

2. Beat me to it.

Why the hell do we have to go overseas to manufacture or purchase condoms? Is the US ever again going to make anything other than war?

[katty]

3. yup

[emilyg]

4. Yes.

[nichomachus]

6. And China is worse than Alabama why?

Or any other state for that matter, once the corporations get involved.

Does anyone remember the guy who knowingly sent out poisoned peanut butter, killing and sickening a whole bunch of people, just to make a bigger profit. That wasn't in China. That was in the good, old U S of A.

By the way, he's still a free man. He wouldn't be in China.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. The peanut butter thing was bad, but they're sticking melamine in everything

Have you read about the drywall in FL, etc?

I'd rather take my chances with products coming from any country but China.

[stillcool]

5. Too bad they had problems with

their product. I could have more outrage if the move was purely dollar related..although USAID is no prize, when it comes to doling out the dough.

Besides, he said, the sole U.S. supplier — an Alabama company called Alatech — had previous delivery problems under the program.

It's clear that Alatech's problems over the years, which apparently have been resolved, may have driven U.S. officials to seek much less expensive foreign-made condoms in the first place.
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The agency also said 12 countries had declined free Alatech condoms under the program. But Povlacs said the reason for that was design, which was dictated by the government, not quality. Povlacs said Alatech never was told directly that some countries wanted a thinner condom, more like those sold commercially.