Do not regulate toy safety.

• Position: Get Government to Back Off

As companies recall numerous toys based on safety concerns about lead paint, many are using the events to call for a dramatic increase in regulation. "To guarantee the safety of the nation's children," writes The New York Times, "American toy makers must be truly regulated by a well-financed, powerful government agency." Toy makers themselves have expressed similar sentiments; the Toy Industry Association, according to The Times, "called on the government to require mandatory safety testing with uniform standards."

Blasting the proposals is Alex Epstein, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute, Irvine, Calif. "To establish a new toy agency is exactly the wrong response to concerns about lead paint," he charges. "Establishing testing procedures and safety standards is the right and responsibility of toy manufacturers, parents, and any private safety organizations they choose to employ. Such organizations exist in many other fields, from bicycle helmets to rock climbing gear, and have exemplary records--and no wonder; they live and die based on their reputation.

"By contrast," Epstein continues, "if the government gets to dictate what companies must...