Nailed it. Yep. Building a massive production line with complex equipment and training only to be bankrupt in 6 months is a fools errand. The is why we have a government - when we need something that capitalism cannot supply. But they wont, so we don't.
In this case, government is actually preventing capitalism from being tried. But you see that as capitalism has failed and only government can save us.
Not if they can make all of their money back in 6 months via extreme prices. However we are past the "extreme prices" phase of the pandemic.
> Not if they can make all of their money back in 6 months via extreme prices. However we are past the "extreme prices" phase of the pandemic.
But to do that, you'd have to bring the new production capacity online on day 1, which is unrealistic. The timelines just don't make sense. New factories don't just pop into existence; it take time to build them and bring them online.
The main thing that would actually happen if price gouging was allowed is that parasitic middlemen would drive up the prices of existing stock by flipping it (making only a personal profit and doing no social good). Existing manufacturers might do that too, if they're not concerned with losing goodwill by pissing off their current customers.