"Using your expertise to help during a crisis is NOT about commercial advantage or profit. It's about the right thing for society and showing our community's true values"

I recognize that a global pandemic was seen as a golden opportunity for many businesses to take advantage and make a profit. In the early days we saw everyone making and selling masks. Heck, I have a friend in Florida who changed up her entire business to make custom embroidered masks. The catch was, we all needed masks so is it really taking advantage or is it as simple as supply and demand? Perhaps the custom embroidery was a bit over the top but, for some people, that may have lowered the personal barriers to mask wearing at all.

I’ve had a few conversations recently with young people who take issue with the profiteering due to the pandemic. I’ve listened, leaned in and sought to understand their concerns. However, I have not been able to fully agree with their stand. The same profiteering they detest is often how the very clothes they wear found home in their closets. 

It’s a tough thing to gauge; the chicken or the egg dilemma, if you will. We must do better to show our values in times of crisis AND we need to safeguard entrepreneurs that see a need and seek to fill it. 

Society needs both, in harmony and in community,