Re:The U.S. tried to build a new fleet of ventilators
by AnthonyMouse on Sunday March 29, 2020 @04:16PM
(#22722305)
> For this particular crisis, yes.
Really not even for this particular crisis. We can build more of something on a short timescale, it just costs more then. You have to build facilities you know are only going to run for six months and then be decommissioned, so you have to amortize their construction cost over half a year instead of 30 years. You have to build them on the double, which means paying a lot of overtime and buying land and raw materials without taking a lot of time to negotiate on price or worry about efficiency. But we could do it.
And then the ventilators would cost ten times more than they ordinarily do and idiots would accuse anybody trying to do this of price gouging. But it could be done. (Unless the idiots pass a law against charging more than the regular price during an emergency.)
Really not even for this particular crisis. We can build more of something on a short timescale, it just costs more then. You have to build facilities you know are only going to run for six months and then be decommissioned, so you have to amortize their construction cost over half a year instead of 30 years. You have to build them on the double, which means paying a lot of overtime and buying land and raw materials without taking a lot of time to negotiate on price or worry about efficiency. But we could do it.
And then the ventilators would cost ten times more than they ordinarily do and idiots would accuse anybody trying to do this of price gouging. But it could be done. (Unless the idiots pass a law against charging more than the regular price during an emergency.)