not sure about giving him $1 per surgical mask is a right thing to do. The big component is the material, which need to be refined and coated. The material need

not sure about giving him $1 per surgical mask is a right thing to do. The big component is the material, which need to be refined and coated. The material needs to be processed with expensive machine. According to article from NPR, even manufacturers in China depends on this German machinary supplier. It looks like the difference between 2c masks and 10c masks from his company is due to either business efficiency or labor cost. To pay 10c or 20c per mask to his company looks reasonable if he bought machine from Germany and made end-to-end production from raw material. However it does not seem reasonable to pay $1 if he simply buys ready-to-use materials, cut, and package. As for long term contract, the argument is ok up to certain extend. The cost of machine is quite high, several $m, it is a fixed cost, but negligible with high production volume - not that high to justify 10y contract. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/16/814929294/covid-19-has-caused-a-shortage-of-face-masks-but-theyre-surprisingly-hard-to-mak https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/16/8149292...