As a 5th generation Detroiter; this offer makes me very, very proud.
I grew up in Ann Arbor. Can we open up Willow Run again? :)
GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
81–90 of 584 posts
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you share what company that is. Interested to learn more.
There was a story published earlier in the week. At that point, no orders had been placed for ventilators. Presumably the defense procurement authorization will result in that purchase being made. Hopefully it’s not another family grift.
You mean the one Trump just walked back? (According to the NYT earlier, searching for corroboration)
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon Musk does not owe people anything. If he decides to produce them, that's fine, but he doesn't have to. But the governments should buy these ventilators from private companies, so private companies like Tesla or GM were incentivized to produce these ventilators. Edit: added and then removed a comment about downvotes
The point is not whether or not Musk owes it to anyone. But that some people claim to be making the world a better place, and others batten down and actually do make the world a better place. And usually the latter is a lot less glamorous than the former.
Let's be fair, Elon has had plenty of accomplishments in "making the world a better place". I don't see the point of all this concentrated attention on one person as if he's the savior to every problem.
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon Musk does not owe people anything. If he decides to produce them, that's fine, but he doesn't have to. But the governments should buy these ventilators from private companies, so private companies like Tesla or GM were incentivized to produce these ventilators. Edit: added and then removed a comment about downvotes
No one is saying Musk owes people or has to do it. No one.
Parent comment says Musk "should".
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#85This made me feel a twinge of patriotism. Something I haven’t felt in a long time.
We are Americans, we have gone through a lot in this country. In dire times, when humans get together to solve problems - I get goosebumps and tears in my eyes. In our normal day to day life, consuming media and seeing how fragmented this nation has become - incidents like this bring us all together to fight a common enemy. We should have the onus and the courage to help everyone in the world, not just the US. Our image is blemished but the fabric of our principles is still strong. I've never felt patriotism in my whole life in America - but times like this, fuck its amazing.
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it probably will look like an overreaction, but that doesn't provide carte-blanche to overreact every time there's a new virus. As GP mentioned, this happens every few years. Most of the time, it fizzles out. We can't transition all production to hospital equipment every few years, even if it is the right call twice a century. I have often reprimanded (and have in turn been reprimanded) for overengineering a sol…
Most of the time it's a new flu for which we can make a vaccine quickly and isn't a huge threat. This one we knew was novel, a spreader and a killer.
SARS, swine flu, bird flu, ebola - just in the past couple of decades these all caused considerable concern of pandemic. We're talking about what we knew of COVID19 in January here, which was basically nothing.
Hindsight justification for which ones were a real problem isn't useful.
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#87> There are going to be a lot of comments about how we messed up, wasted time, etc., but they miss the point. That, ironically, misses the point of the existing comments about how we wasted time. By wasting time, lots of people are going to die that didn't need to die. None of that has to do with mobilization itself or the issues that we run into during mobilization, it has to do with when we decided to mobilize.
At the risk of being argumentative I would point out that many Americans died unnecessarily at the beginning of WWII as well. This is a common pattern in wars.
I think you can take this analogy too far. If I were to do so, I'd say that the OP is suggesting that Pearl Harbor was attacked, the President said it was no big deal, just one Japanese plane, and the country collectively twiddled their thumbs while the enemy advanced.
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#88> There are going to be a lot of comments about how we messed up, wasted time, etc., but they miss the point. That, ironically, misses the point of the existing comments about how we wasted time. By wasting time, lots of people are going to die that didn't need to die. None of that has to do with mobilization itself or the issues that we run into during mobilization, it has to do with when we decided to mobilize.
At the risk of being argumentative I would point out that many Americans died unnecessarily at the beginning of WWII as well. This is a common pattern in wars.
We are not at war. We are +T two months since the first confirmed case in the USA and had warning nearly a month prior to that, and the Federal government has done almost nothing of substance other than reject tests and advice from nations who have been fighting this far better than we have, because they have functional health services.
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#89I hope companies step up and create surgical masks. It's such a basic item, but we don't have enough. Forget about guns, it's like asking troops to fight without shoes.
Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Musk thinks it’s hype https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1239756900255903744
That's an overstatement of what he said. He had been posting about possible medical treatments [1], which is why the tweet you linked to starts with "That said" before talking about panicking and redirecting medical resources away from people who need it. Do you know why? The drug he was posting about before that tweet, `chloroquine`, is already facing shortages around the globe for people already on it for non-COVID…
He also literally said "The coronavirus panic is dumb":