it depended. large corporation like Apple don't need the money but mom and pop shop that is forced to close during the peak should receive money. the sad thing is corporation that clearly can make it thur covid is receiving the largest amount like https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...
No, they shouldn't. Don't give any money to any corporations, give all the money exclusively to people.
If Mom and Pop run a business, they can get cash as humans to float their business, just like any human could. They could temporarily lay off all their staff (which is OK, because their staff are humans, and are also getting cash)
There was never any valid reason to give a single cent to any company.
Companies are more that just a collection of people.
Do we stop all output and just have the government mail checks to every individual forever? That’s not going to work. Who is going to produce the things we need to function as a society?
/s
Look into “modern monetary theory”
> They could temporarily lay off all their staff
So you pay people's salaries while they're furloughed. Together with moratoria (don't know if this is the word) on loans this means companies get “paused” while lockdowns are ongoing and don't shut down.
I know of at least one company in the latter category where the owner pocketed around $500k and I don't think it had much impact on how they ran their business. All they had to do was not layoff people they wouldn't have anyway and the government picked up the tab on their labor costs for a year. Free money!
(Edit: I’m aware TFA is about about European pandemic relief.)
Edit: These emergency financial support measures I was referring to are:
- "Temporary emergency scheme for job retention" (NOW)
- "Temporary self-employment income support and loan scheme" (TOZO)
- "Reimbursement Fixed Costs" (TVL)
More info (in English) on gov websites:
- https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/inform...
- https://english.rvo.nl/subsidies-programmes/reimbursement-fi...
Edit 2: Oh wait there is more:
- "Subsidy scheme for events cancelled due to corona measures"
- "TVL Stock Support Closed Retail"
- "R&D subsidy scheme for the mobility sector" (RDM)
- "Temporary Support for Necessary Costs" (TONK)
- "Arrangement for businesses damaged by curfew riots" (RBC)
More info: https://business.gov.nl/corona/overview/the-coronavirus-and-...
Arguably, it would've been a much better system if the Netherlands just... paid people directly regardless of who they worked for at the time, so employers didn't need to worry about paying employees while they couldn't do normal business.
Nevertheless the systems do exist. Financial aid was and even still is there for you or your business if you need it.
Instead they should have let businesses lay off staff without feeling guilty because there was a safety net for those people and once a business laid off X% of their staff they could have been eligible for extra government help.
That way the government wouldn't have ended up paying the wages of people that were needed to meet demand (and make profit for) the businesses that weren't really impacted.
For example, local restaurants got crushed and could easily justify laying off 50%+ of their staff. Give them more money IMO. However, the delivery business down the street with +50% demand shouldn't be getting a nickel.