Live data from Hacker News

Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

npr.org

31–40 of 128 posts

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#31
post #24

From a quick skim: - $61M to the FDA for various uses relevant to COVID-19 response. - $20M to the Small Business Administration for admin expenses incidental to carrying out the disaster loan program. - $2.2B to Department of Health and Human Services for preparations/preventions/responses to COVID-19; Not less than $950M to be used for grants or co-op agreements with states, tribes, etc. Minimum of $475M to be allo…

"$250M to Economic Support Fund (Economic, security, and stabilization purposes)" sounds rather disappointing. Just a drop in the bucket no?

I believe ESF is for supporting and stabilizing overseas (non-U.S.) democracies & strategic interests.

Speaking of US homeland economic support, one could argue that the combined effort shown by the bill, and all of the allocated budget money, is going toward support of the US economy in some way.

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#32

Loans, even cheap ones, are a very shity way of "helping" small businesses and individuals. For example, a local restaurant where I live, will have to shut down for good in the next few days as they won't be able to afford their lease. If they get a loan for the lease, they'll be on the hook for that money with no guarantee of being able to pay it back and with way too much uncertainty in terms of when they'll be abl…

> Loans, even cheap ones, are a very shity way of "helping" small businesses Really disagree on this point. The primary value of a business is their assets, brands and expertise. All of those things will be just as valuable after the pandemic as they were before. Assets don't just disappear because they're not used. This is just as true for small businesses as it is for big business. Any business that was profitable…

I think you may be underestimating the extent to which a “small business owner loses a year of income” and “entire small business capsizes” are the same thing.

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They meant bold and significant for the corporate bailouts. Socialism for thee but not for me.

Corporate “bailouts” are just loans.

Not terribly interested in this thread, but for the record %0 interest loans when they're big (billions of dollars) are effectively the same as handing out free money. A bank would need to be ridiculously incompetent not to turn those loans into significant profits (and hey, give out executive bonuses too!).

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#35

[flagged]

Compensating people for forcing the closure of the businesses or not allowing them to work is not socialism.

Of course it’s not. But it’s what the likes of Trump would have called it just two weeks ago.

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#37

[flagged]

I would suggest doing research on that subject. The US has one of the world's largest, most expensive social safety nets. The primary problem the US has isn't spending on its social safety net, it's not controlling costs properly (as with healthcare in general) and not directing its spending effectively enough.

The US spends approximately the equivalent of 40% the entire EU economy on its social safety net.

This new spending is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the existing US spending on its social safety net.

It's precisely why the US poverty rate and US homelessness rate are comparable to Canada and France. Because the US spends very large sums of money on its social safety net.

It's why the US spends $650-$700 billion each year on free healthcare for the poorest 25%.

It's why the total government expenditures in the US are now $8 trillion every year. What do you think that's all going to? Roads? Military? Total government spending in the US is almost 40% of GDP.

You can find the information you're lacking here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending_in_the_Uni...

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#39

Loans, even cheap ones, are a very shity way of "helping" small businesses and individuals. For example, a local restaurant where I live, will have to shut down for good in the next few days as they won't be able to afford their lease. If they get a loan for the lease, they'll be on the hook for that money with no guarantee of being able to pay it back and with way too much uncertainty in terms of when they'll be abl…

> Loans, even cheap ones, are a very shity way of "helping" small businesses Really disagree on this point. The primary value of a business is their assets, brands and expertise. All of those things will be just as valuable after the pandemic as they were before. Assets don't just disappear because they're not used. This is just as true for small businesses as it is for big business. Any business that was profitable…

> Assets don't just disappear because they're not used.

This is fundamentally incorrect insofar as the only asset of any small business is typically the labor it employs. Large businesses have intellectual property, capital, real estate, vehicle/equipment fleets, and so on, but nearly all small business have a lease, their on-site inventory (frequently perishable), and their people. All of their ability to continue operations is represented by their ability to retain those people.

Re: Senate passes bill to provide benefits to individuals and small businesses

#40
post #5

with very little information of what this new bill actually does, and no links for further information. dissapointed.

As with most massive bills. You can read what's in it after it passes. The only ones that any idea of specifics are the staffs to members of Congress.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pelosi-healthcare-pass-the...
Post reply on HN