Here's to the Polypropylene Makers
Summary
A LessWrong post recounts how Braskem plants mobilized workers to stay operational during the COVID-19 crisis by housing volunteers for 28 days, producing 40 million pounds of polypropylene—enough for about 500 million N95 masks. It argues that appropriate compensation and creative problem-solving by ordinary people can fill critical gaps in emergencies and has broader implications for crisis logistics and incentive design.