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It protects the manufacturer against ramping up supply only for demand to suddenly disappear.


A one-time order isn't what that company is looking for. They're only responding to hospitals that sign onto a five-year contract, for example. Likely the only way to get to the front of the line with him now is to have an authorized 10-year contract signed by the board of directors with a capped total, with an attached note, "fill in your price, up to this amount", handed over face-to-face by the customer's CEO stepping into the factory.

Even that isn't really sufficient. Looking at the capex depreciation table [1], he'll only depreciate the new machinery in five years, and likely still be paying a note on it. Commercial industrial/flex space leases in the DFW area where he's near are typically around 3-5 years. After all is said and done, he's likely roughly breaking even, and not netting a giant personal profit at the other end.

He needs the Federal and state governments committing to evergreen disaster preparedness on a decades-long timescale. That takes much more than stockpiling.

[1] https://cs.thomsonreuters.com/ua/fixa/cs_us_en/ass_life_tbl/...




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