Coronaviris - innovation

A Wall Street Journal article is about innovation during the coronavirus pandemic. Shoes to Masks: Corporate Innovation Flourishes in Coronavirus Fight. It features several cases of how private companies have changed what they do in response to economic demand. Since the article is behind a paywall, the following -- until the asterisks -- are some excerpts.

The innovations "run the gamut from individuals using 3-D printers to turn out N95 masks and academic labs repurposing themselves into coronavirus test centers to General Motors Co. teaming up with Ventec Life Systems to make ventilators."

The "shoes to masks" in the title refers to a small Pennsylvania company that switched from making children's shoes to making face masks for protection against the coronavirus.

The True Value Co. switched some of its paint production lines to make hand sanitizer.

During World War II, government agencies "such as the War Production Board and the U.S. Maritime Commission decided what should be produced and which companies would get contracts, which generally had a guaranteed profit margin."

"Yet compared with wartime, the federal government has thus far mostly played a supporting role in mobilizing economic resources to combat the pandemic. Most of the acquisition and production of vital supplies has fallen to states and health-care providers working with private suppliers and intermediaries."

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The above innovations occurred in a partly free market economy, where production and decision-making are not centralized. Any market participants may make decisions and take initiative. They do not need authorization from government officials (with exceptions). Socialism is usually the idea that government should own and control all production. (Even socialists who advocate worker-owned firms typically desire extensive government planning at a macro level, especially for finance and capital allocation.) Production, capital allocation, and decision-making are centralized, subject to laws, regulations, and approval by government officials. The spontaneous order of markets is more conducive to innovation and more adaptive to changing circumstances than the command or planned order of politicians and government bureaucrats.