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It's more what it says about our government's utter incompetence. If we can't solve the problem of distributing masks in an arguably _light_ pandemic, what the

It's more what it says about our government's utter incompetence. If we can't solve the problem of distributing masks in an arguably _light_ pandemic, what the hell should we expect when a worse one comes along...? Global supply chain issues have clearly stuck around, and we're relying on another country on another continent to provide something that would classify as an emergency good. You tell me how that makes sense. The downvotes are cute, this is a very legitimate concern though. There's nothing wrong with wondering why China releasing a virus is just an "oopsie."

nemothekid 5y ago
>It's more what it says about our government's utter incompetence. If we can't solve the problem of distributing masks in an arguably _light_ pandemic, what the hell should we expect when a worse one comes along...? It's a tall order to fix 40 to 50 years of global offshoring in a 10 months. If COVID has taught me anything, I believe we are more likely to just grit our teeth and put up with the costs than actually try and fix the issue in the future. Americans will never buy (or could possibly afford) domestically manufactured goods. There is already fervor at increased food prices due to the labor price increases all across the food chain; you want to do the same to cups and plates? It would never be politically successful. >The downvotes are cute, this is a very legitimate concern though. There's nothing wrong with wondering why China releasing a virus is just an "oopsie." Because it's not a productive conversation. 1) Whether it's an "oopsie" or not, Americans were still unprepared. 2) If it's not an oopsie, what are you going to do? Invade China on a hunch? 3) Given the history of respiratory diseases in China (e.g. SARS), and the growth of China in the global economy, isn't it more likely that is SARS 2 ever occurred it would be global in nature? This isn't the first time China has had to deal with a respiratory virus.
- hatware 5y ago
  > fix 40 to 50 years of global offshoring in a 10 months That's... not what I asked for. We're talking respiratory cloth masks here, not the global economy. Our discussion will be more productive if you don't put words in my mouth. You're really trying to ignore the obvious red flags. Respiratory masks for US consumption being made in China is not a result of globalization. It's just corporate greed hiding behind virtue signals.
  - edmundsauto 5y ago
    What makes you say it's corporate greed, rather than a very strong consumer preference for the cheapest price? In the mask-price-race-to-the-bottom, US factories aren't competitive due to wage and environmental regs.
  - nemothekid 5y ago
    >We're talking respiratory cloth masks here, not the global economy. Where do you expect these masks to be made? In people's backyards? When you are talking about suppling millions of masks, you are talking about the global economy. The tooling that is used to quickly ramp production to that scale is because you can take already existing systems that are used to develop clothing and other apparel and rapidly convert them to making masks. If you don't have that, then where do you expect it to come from? If you don't already have people working in factory, making clothes, where will you find the people to start making masks? Then lets say you do find these people, on very short notice. You are now paying them american labor prices; will your potential customers just choose to source from overseas anyways? I'm not putting words in your mouth; maybe you aren't fully aware the effort it would take to ship millions of anything on such a short timescale without having the existing infrastructure to do it; especially if that infrastructure hasn't existed for a very long time. You are putting forth a very difficult problem very matter of factly.

nemothekid 5y ago

>It's more what it says about our government's utter incompetence. If we can't solve the problem of distributing masks in an arguably _light_ pandemic, what the hell should we expect when a worse one comes along...? It's a tall order to fix 40 to 50 years of global offshoring in a 10 months. If COVID has taught me anything, I believe we are more likely to just grit our teeth and put up with the costs than actually try and fix the issue in the future. Americans will never buy (or could possibly afford) domestically manufactured goods. There is already fervor at increased food prices due to the labor price increases all across the food chain; you want to do the same to cups and plates? It would never be politically successful. >The downvotes are cute, this is a very legitimate concern though. There's nothing wrong with wondering why China releasing a virus is just an "oopsie." Because it's not a productive conversation. 1) Whether it's an "oopsie" or not, Americans were still unprepared. 2) If it's not an oopsie, what are you going to do? Invade China on a hunch? 3) Given the history of respiratory diseases in China (e.g. SARS), and the growth of China in the global economy, isn't it more likely that is SARS 2 ever occurred it would be global in nature? This isn't the first time China has had to deal with a respiratory virus.

hatware 5y ago
> fix 40 to 50 years of global offshoring in a 10 months That's... not what I asked for. We're talking respiratory cloth masks here, not the global economy. Our discussion will be more productive if you don't put words in my mouth. You're really trying to ignore the obvious red flags. Respiratory masks for US consumption being made in China is not a result of globalization. It's just corporate greed hiding behind virtue signals.
- edmundsauto 5y ago
  What makes you say it's corporate greed, rather than a very strong consumer preference for the cheapest price? In the mask-price-race-to-the-bottom, US factories aren't competitive due to wage and environmental regs.
- nemothekid 5y ago
  >We're talking respiratory cloth masks here, not the global economy. Where do you expect these masks to be made? In people's backyards? When you are talking about suppling millions of masks, you are talking about the global economy. The tooling that is used to quickly ramp production to that scale is because you can take already existing systems that are used to develop clothing and other apparel and rapidly convert them to making masks. If you don't have that, then where do you expect it to come from? If you don't already have people working in factory, making clothes, where will you find the people to start making masks? Then lets say you do find these people, on very short notice. You are now paying them american labor prices; will your potential customers just choose to source from overseas anyways? I'm not putting words in your mouth; maybe you aren't fully aware the effort it would take to ship millions of anything on such a short timescale without having the existing infrastructure to do it; especially if that infrastructure hasn't existed for a very long time. You are putting forth a very difficult problem very matter of factly.