What is it worth to you to buy pet food without deadly chemicals, tires that won’t come apart while you’re driving and toys that aren’t coated with lead paint?

While this country’s regulatory agencies aren’t an absolute protection against such hazards, the product safety rules they enforce are a darned sight better than those apparently being followed in China right now.

Within the last couple of weeks, recalls have been ordered for unsafe tires, tainted honey and lead-painted Thomas the Tank toys, all made in China. A story in Wednesday’s Journal-World was a reminder of the toll apparently taken in recent months by pet food laced with melamine, a problem that also originated in China. A local woman who has lost three dogs to kidney failure – the most recent death coming just this month – is among pet owners convinced their animals fell victim to the melamine contamination.

How did these products get into the United States? Why are we buying them?

It’s all about the bottom line.

To undercut their competition many U.S. retailers are turning to China, where low-wage laborers (investigations of slave labor practices also have been launched) allow businesses to manufacture products at a much lower cost than they can be made in the United States.

Everyone loves a bargain, so U.S. shoppers are snapping up this merchandise, assuming that if it’s on American store shelves it meets at least minimal U.S. safety standards. Think again.

Manufacturers in China apparently aren’t sufficiently regulated and simply don’t seem to care about product safety. The Chinese business that manufactured the 19,000 tires that were recalled this week admitted that it was aware that the tires didn’t have the required gum strip that helps bind the belts of the tires to one another. Oh, well.

A hundred years ago, Americans had first-hand knowledge about most of the products they purchased. Their food came from their garden, their neighbor’s chicken house or the dairy down the road. If someone milked their cows in unsanitary conditions, people knew, and could avoid their product. If they bought a buggy or a dress, they knew who had made it and whether they did good work.

As transportation improved, Americans had the choice of buying items from around the world. Sometimes it was because that item was unique or of exceptional quality. Now, too often, it’s just because it is less expensive than a comparable item produced by an American employee receiving a fair wage.

But if the choice is between a slightly more expensive product made and regulated in the United States and a less expensive product made in a country that shows little regard for safety details, which would you buy?

It’s a question worth considering.