To the Journal editor:

It seemed like such a good idea at the time; a fool-proof way to maximize profits for investors hungry for improved rates of return. Why pay American workers to produce products in domestic factories when you can afford to move their machines to China, hire eager workers for less, and increase profits? Now, we know why.

Why can’t the wealthiest and most technologically advanced country in the world get what we need to protect critical medical personnel during a pandemic? Because, in the case of masks, China effectively nationalized the 3M company’s mask manufacturing plant in Shanghai, according to President Trump’s manufacturing and trade advisor, Peter Navarro. Masks produced by 3M in China, would stay in China, Beijing ordered.

Moreover, while the CDC tells us we don’t need to wear masks as we shop for food or visit the pharmacy, in China the police require anyone who goes out in public to wear a mask. News footage from Beijing shows everyone wearing masks while they go about their daily business. You’re being told you don’t need a mask, not because you don’t need one, but because we don’t have any.

Turns out, the real truth might just be that the very best guidance is for everyone to wear a mask when in the presence of potentially infectious people; that’s the truth, that is, if you have an endless supply of masks.

We swell our chests out when we hear “America-first” rhetoric; not so much, though, when American workers raise their voices to lobby for a livable wage.

Ask yourself, why have we hesitated to immediately retool the few remaining domestic manufacturing facilities that remain here to make these critically needed supplies? Why have we hesitated to immediately enact laws to prevent the financial ruin of working Americans and the small businesses that provide them with the jobs they will need to recover from this crisis? Maybe it’s time to shift our gaze away from our plummeting 401K balances and our dwindling bank accounts.

What we are presently reaping are the fruits of 50 years of cumulative greed to assure increasing dividends at any cost. Now, we will have to reckon with waves of disease spreading through homeless encampments, the over-filled prisons, the underserved communities without protective gear, and healthcare professionals going into harm’s way without the protective equipment they deserve.

Either everybody counts, or nobody counts.