<story><title>Six months in, N95 mask shortages persist</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/913093387/why-cant-america-make-enough-n95-masks-6-months-into-pandemic-shortages-persist</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>londons_explore</author><text>Because &amp;#x27;anti price gouging&amp;#x27; laws prevent the price going high enough to make it worth someone going to extreme efforts to upscale production.&lt;p&gt;Without those laws, the price going from $1 per mask to $10 per mask would still be very much affordable for everyone who &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; needs a mask, and factories who can successfully get decent production underway will earn lots, making it worthwhile to take on the risk of chasing a (possibly short lived) demand.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nradov</author><text>Removing price gouging laws wouldn&amp;#x27;t fix the problem. Setting up new N95 mask production lines takes huge capital investment. Manufacturers won&amp;#x27;t make that investment unless they have assurance of long term sales beyond the current pandemic. State and federal governments could solve that by issuing long-term purchase contracts to build up stockpiles.</text></comment>
<story><title>Six months in, N95 mask shortages persist</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/913093387/why-cant-america-make-enough-n95-masks-6-months-into-pandemic-shortages-persist</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>londons_explore</author><text>Because &amp;#x27;anti price gouging&amp;#x27; laws prevent the price going high enough to make it worth someone going to extreme efforts to upscale production.&lt;p&gt;Without those laws, the price going from $1 per mask to $10 per mask would still be very much affordable for everyone who &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; needs a mask, and factories who can successfully get decent production underway will earn lots, making it worthwhile to take on the risk of chasing a (possibly short lived) demand.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Without those laws, the price going from $1 per mask to $10 per mask would still be very much affordable for everyone who really needs a mask, and factories who can successfully get decent production underway will earn lots&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Friend owns a textile factory in India. They immediately began production of masks, which they sold at something like a 10,000% premium. (Re-tooling is expensive, so their profits weren’t exorbitant. Though they were larger than normal, which incentivises the work.) Once the premium diminished, they went back to making clothes.&lt;p&gt;India has anti-gouging laws. But they are loosely enforced to the point of non-existence. In America, we not only have such laws, we also have a media circus and cancel subculture that strongly discourages such responses.</text></comment>