Hacker News Reader

Comment by unlinked_dll | Hacker News Reader

My family and friends who lost their jobs or got furloughed can't pay their rent with equity.

When I suggested equity for bailout, I mean the the government would provide cash. Instead of it just being a handout to businesses , they would receive equity in exchange

Is anyone talking about bailouts without equity? I thought that was implied, since it's how they handled the automaker bailout 12 years ago.

But regardless I don't see the efficacy of bailouts for most companies. Besides a few critical businesses like the airlines and Boeing, the money would do very little to help the workers who have been laid off or furloughed. The government needs to pick up that tab directly, or else the cash isn't going to be used for it.

My understanding is that they are talking about "free" bailouts without equity. This article [1] suggests this is the case for the airlines, which would receive a "grant", and small businesses, which would receiving tax credits. It is unclear to me if this is just a mischaracterization by the MSM.

I expect that workers will see very little of the 2 trillion dollar bill. $1000 for an estimated 30 million workers (~10X current numbers) would be about 1.5% of the bailout. 3 months of unemployment for the same would be about 10% of the total.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/25/coronavirus-stimulus-bill-up...

The checks are going to a more like 120 million households (ballpark, haven't checked the BLS), and your unemployment ballpark is 10 million shy of the estimates.

This would be a portion of the plan, not the whole thing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com