"I know people losing their jobs is difficult, but it's not the company that's making these decisions, it's the consumer that goes into the store".
Keith Patridge, CEO of McAllen Economic Development Corporation talking to the Sunday Star Times, New Zealand.

There were a couple of interesting articles in a New Zealand paper. One that continues on with the story of one of our home-grown companies moving out of New Zealand to cheaper labour pastures in Mexico.

Faced with competing products with similar features, consumers will choose the cheapest, so companies manufacturing in places with low wages will have a market advantage.

So I'm partially responsible for companies moving to places like Mexico where they find workers to work for around $US3 an hour.

I guess it leaves consumers wide open to risks like this: Poison in children's clothing is emerging as the latest health risk from China.

TV3's Target programme will this week detail how scientists found formaldehyde in woollen and cotton clothes at levels 500 times higher than is safe.

It questions why there are no New Zealand safety standards for clothes.