Marco Rubio: The Coronavirus Shows We Need a More Resilient American Economy – The New York Times

Having monopolized those critical supply chains, the Chinese Communist Party pointed them inward. It ensured that face masks being manufactured in China, for example, went to domestic consumption and their own fight against the virus.

Largely unable to import supplies from China, America has been left scrambling because we by and large lack the ability to make things, as well as the state capacity needed for reorienting production to do so. As a result, doctors are forced to ration supplies and, in some cases, cease using necessary protective equipment.

And while some heroic businesses have shifted production to help fill this gap and produce masks, hand sanitizer and other goods, the nation is still behind.

One reason is that as manufacturers fled to China, our nations economy transformed into one dominated by service industries, which survive on person-to-person transactions like the ones now restricted. And unlike industrial economies, service-based economies lack the flexibility that comes with producing physical goods that can either be sold later or repurposed to meet a sudden shortage. This makes us especially vulnerable to this kind of shock.

A commensurate shift in corporate behavior away from investment in workers, equipment and facilities, and toward churning out short-term financial gains to shareholders has only further sapped our resiliency. Why didnt we have enough N95 masks or ventilators on hand for a pandemic? Because buffer stocks dont maximize financial return, and there was no shareholder reward for protecting against risk. Even in government, we became infatuated with the just in time acquisition model, as opposed to just in case contingency acquisitions.

Today, we see the consequences of this short-term, hyperindividualistic ethos. Americans cannot leave their homes. Neighbors are unable to shake hands. Places of worship are closed. The labor market, especially for working-class Americans in those service industries, is in free-fall.

With the steadfast resolve of American communities and with government support to provide businesses the resources they need to pull through, Americans will overcome the challenge before us. But the society that follows should not be what it was before. We wont properly absorb the lessons from the coronavirus crisis if we fall back into the traditional Republican and Democratic model of politics. We need a new vision to create a more resilient economy.

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Marco Rubio: The Coronavirus Shows We Need a More Resilient American Economy - The New York Times