> Devil's advocate: Why would a manufacturer consider damaging what is a potential mega cash cow? I read earlier that ventilators generally sell for $40-70,000U

> Devil's advocate: Why would a manufacturer consider damaging what is a potential mega cash cow? I read earlier that ventilators generally sell for $40-70,000USD to hospitals (who then go on to charge $20-40k for ventilator based treatment.) Because capitalism only works with a functioning economy. If everything goes all pear shaped, and we have tens of thousands of people dying because we don't have enough ventilators (and the numbers suggest that this is quite possible), these companies that have been filling their bathtubs with cash are going to have angry gun toting mobs of newly homeless and bereaved Americans using their office windows for target practice. This will happen regardless of what's right or wrong, legal or illegal. We haven't seen this here before because we haven't had a strong enough economic collapse yet (excluding the Great Depression of course, where some of this did happen). It's happened in many other countries, and may happen here too if CEOs don't take a more long term perspective on pricing.