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So make it $500 a mask and you just cordon off a good for the rich.

lend000 7y ago
Econ 101: Today, masks are $500. Tomorrow, 100 companies in various industries begin to repurpose their factories to produce masks and arbitrage the price down until it isn't profitable anymore. Supply increases; thus, there are more masks than there were before the price increase. Even if you don't like who gets the first mask, you can't deny that supply increases, and therefore more people now have masks.
- wtallis 7y ago
  And in the next lecture, you learn that factories can't be retooled overnight, and people die in the meantime.
  - lend000 7y ago
    Masks are not complex. It does not need to be an N95 certified mask to significantly reduce respirated droplets. You would be surprised by the ingenuity of entrepreneurs, but of course, this thread is not about logic but instead about jealousy of others' abilities to profit in a way that some people think is unethical, despite the fact that it would undeniably result in more masks to combat this crisis. In reality, most of the people with your viewpoint cannot envision themselves scrapping together something and pivoting their entire business on such a short time frame, and they share the relatively common personality trait in which they then don't want others to succeed where they do not. > factories can't be retooled overnight, and people die in the meantime. Of course the masks aren't hitting shelves the next day, perhaps two weeks before meaningful production increases. What a pointless statement -- the crisis won't be over in two weeks, and this same principle would have held two weeks ago, or eight. And then you would blame people dying on the entrepreneurs retooling to create masks? Another pointless statement if that is not your intent.
    - wtallis 7y ago
      > this thread is not about logic but instead about jealousy of others' abilities to profit in a way that some people think is unethical, despite the fact that it would undeniably result in more masks to combat this crisis. In reality, most of the people with your viewpoint cannot envision themselves scrapping together something and pivoting their entire business on such a short time frame, and they share the relatively common personality trait in which they then don't want others to succeed where they do not. Were you trying to see how many HN rules you could violate in a single post?
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - onefuncman 7y ago
    This is a marathon, not a sprint. A normal retooling for an auto manufacturer appears to take 8-10 weeks. They should be in time to save a lot of lives.

Econ 101: Today, masks are $500. Tomorrow, 100 companies in various industries begin to repurpose their factories to produce masks and arbitrage the price down until it isn't profitable anymore. Supply increases; thus, there are more masks than there were before the price increase. Even if you don't like who gets the first mask, you can't deny that supply increases, and therefore more people now have masks.

wtallis 7y ago
And in the next lecture, you learn that factories can't be retooled overnight, and people die in the meantime.
- lend000 7y ago
  Masks are not complex. It does not need to be an N95 certified mask to significantly reduce respirated droplets. You would be surprised by the ingenuity of entrepreneurs, but of course, this thread is not about logic but instead about jealousy of others' abilities to profit in a way that some people think is unethical, despite the fact that it would undeniably result in more masks to combat this crisis. In reality, most of the people with your viewpoint cannot envision themselves scrapping together something and pivoting their entire business on such a short time frame, and they share the relatively common personality trait in which they then don't want others to succeed where they do not. > factories can't be retooled overnight, and people die in the meantime. Of course the masks aren't hitting shelves the next day, perhaps two weeks before meaningful production increases. What a pointless statement -- the crisis won't be over in two weeks, and this same principle would have held two weeks ago, or eight. And then you would blame people dying on the entrepreneurs retooling to create masks? Another pointless statement if that is not your intent.
  - wtallis 7y ago
    > this thread is not about logic but instead about jealousy of others' abilities to profit in a way that some people think is unethical, despite the fact that it would undeniably result in more masks to combat this crisis. In reality, most of the people with your viewpoint cannot envision themselves scrapping together something and pivoting their entire business on such a short time frame, and they share the relatively common personality trait in which they then don't want others to succeed where they do not. Were you trying to see how many HN rules you could violate in a single post?
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- onefuncman 7y ago
  This is a marathon, not a sprint. A normal retooling for an auto manufacturer appears to take 8-10 weeks. They should be in time to save a lot of lives.