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A comment on GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization. Parent comment

Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by gnopgnip on Thursday March 19, 2020 @03:28AM (#22625337)
This is literally what the military is now. Under the berry amendment a lot of what the military buys needs to be 100% domestic. A significant fraction of military spending is to ensure that the logistics are in place in case of a greater need in the future, not just to fulfill current needs and training, or any specific mission.
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Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by joezydeco on Thursday March 19, 2020 @09:49AM (#22627455)
This is a great 99PI podcast about the US Army Natick center, which develops military rations.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/war-and-pizza/

Part of the mission is to develop the technology and then commercialize it. Now you have a number of factories that are capable of switching into ration production if the need arises.

Things like powdered cheese, condiment packets, and retort packaging came out of this research.

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Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by chrisjc on Thursday March 19, 2020 @11:39AM (#22628469)
Off-topic, but my podcast list has been so enriched through reading HN comment. Thanks for the link.
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Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by noir_lord on Thursday March 19, 2020 @03:35AM (#22625376)
Same reason there are rules about ships going between US ports been manufactured in the US - to keep strategic ship building capacity in the event of a war.
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Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by tobylane on Thursday March 19, 2020 @03:49AM (#22625431)
That well meaning law means there’s one cruise ship that fits the requirements, all the others visit one foreign port. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_America

It looks like the cargo ship law, Jones Act, is more successful in creating capacity.

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Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by brobdingnagians on Thursday March 19, 2020 @05:24AM (#22625848)
Even then, it took a special exemption from Congress since it was towed to and finished in Germany after the initial company filed bankruptcy.

> Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd acquired the unfinished ship and was towed to Germany for completion as Pride of America for their newly launched NCL America division. > A special exemption on the part of the U.S. government allowed the modified, mostly German-built ship to attain U.S. registry. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_America

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Re:GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobiliz... by dantheman on Thursday March 19, 2020 @08:37AM (#22626842)
The Jones act is a complete failure. https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/jones-act-...
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