Making collective decisions to allocate resources to support needs that markets will not, or cannot, do is precisely why governments exist. Governments that ar

Making collective decisions to allocate resources to support needs that markets will not, or cannot, do is precisely why governments exist. Governments that are democratically accountable to the people are far more likely to create outcomes that support collective social needs than are business owners who are accountable to no one. The fact that the United States does such a poor job of this is an indictment of poor governance, and lack of democratic accountability, than a weakness of the principle of government in general. Other countries do far better at this--note the universal availability of rated masks in places like Korea and Japan from day one of the pandemic--and there is a reason the US is ranked 22nd, and falling, for public corruption.[0] [0] https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2018/results/usa https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2018/results/usa