Private companies built a lot of these things by order of the government. How else do you think it would happen in an country which has deliberately made all production private? Russia developed their vaccine without private companies. In WWII they built their war machines without private companies. In other words how things get built in a crisis is just a reflection of how you have chosen to organize your economy prior to crisis.

Pfizer and Johnson&Johnson was able to create vaccines in record time thanks to our current avanced biological knowledge. Thanks to public universities. And Russia made the vaccine in record time too.

Oh the horror if the middle class have to pay for programs they benefit from. I live in Norway. I am part of the middle class. I pay high taxes. But I also get way more from government than the American middle class. At the end of the day I am not left with any less expendable income.

I don't have to save up money for my kids college education. I don't have to pay for health insurance. I don't have to set away money in case I get unemployed or long term sick. I get cheap public transport which I can use to get to work. Which I can use to go to town with my family. Which my kids can use, so I don't have to drive them around everywhere, saving me time and money.

But most importantly it buys me something which is hard to put a price on: A low crime society with low social tension and conflict with low levels of poverty. Where I can walk outside at night any part of town. Where the McDonalds worker or cab driver aren't miserable and worn out looking working too many hours for too little pay.

But I guess the pleasure derives from seeing happy people who are not suffering around you doesn't count in the GDP numbers, so we should ignore it right? The only thing that matters is consuming as much material goods as possible. Me, me, me and more me!