Ross: America’s real weakness during this pandemic
May 15, 2020, 8:08 AM | Updated: 10:18 am
Executive Vice President of Prestige Ameritech Mike Bowen testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)
(Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)
On the question of why we were so unprepared for this pandemic, I heard an explanation yesterday during the testimony of Mike Bowen, who runs a company called Prestige Ameritech. They make N95 masks in Richland Hills, Texas.
He told Congress that once upon a time, he was the biggest supplier of masks in America – until 2004, when China started selling them for less than the cost of the material, and then even his government customers deserted him to save a few cents per mask.
“I call it chasing pennies to China,” Bowen said.
He spent years writing letters to Bush, to Obama, to Trump, asking that they please give his American company some steady business so they would still be there when we need them. Because the pandemic will come!
“Give me business during peacetime so I can survive to help you during a pandemic,” he continued.
But no response. Until the virus hit and everybody discovered that even the world’s most powerful military won’t protect a country that can’t make enough face masks.
The government finally did come to Bowen, but only to place a one-time emergency order:
“So I would have to hire 100 people, train a hundred people, and fire them at the end of the year — I’m not going to do that,” he noted.
So now we’re having a debate over who gets the blame. Mike Bowen’s opinion?
“America has a weakness for low prices.”
It’s on all of us.
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