Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleetlord
So essentially this is what is happeing.
3M > Distributor > Broker > Biggest Payer
This is very much like the Rolex issues with AD selling directly to Grays, who then mark it up and offer it to the market.
In the case of the masks, the brokers buy the masks straight from the distributors and the hospitals get cut out. The brokers then sell overseas because they bypass all the price gouging laws and just sell the masks to anyone with cash.
I don't sense any political sway in this video, it just tells it like it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsmKvC7RpEQ
See the problem is that 3M doesn't have any leverage against them except for nasty press, but that isn't really getting out.
BUT the leverage against 3M is through their retail channels, namely Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart..
SO....if the government set up accounts to buy the masks through the retail channels, the retailers would leverage ALL 3M business against them...in other words, we get all your masks or you lose EVERYTHING you sell through our boxes. That will get their attention very quickly. |
So I accept your whole argument. The counter is that the logistics of the gov't buying the masks and distrbuting them to thousands of hospitals are not easy. The military is good at logistics, but there's deep reluctance to rely too heavily on the military, because it'd leave us vulnerable to attack. The threats are real, and the enemies will strike when we seem weakest.
The straightforward answer is to nationalize 3M right now. Pay the shareholders a fair price and let them move on. I have no problem with that. I tried to push that point and couldn't get a straight answer on it. My personal opinion is that nationalization of any private business would lead to serious capital flight. We have very weak capital controls, because people generally want to keep their wealth in the USA. But that could backfire badly.