Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

nltimes.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 346 posts

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#241

Post by markus92 »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #139
krono wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly what was done here in the Netherlands. Booking.com just decided to exploit and, in my opinion, abuse that system. 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.gove…

NOW appears to pay businesses up-front for, in turn, continuing to pay employees: https://business.gov.nl/subsidy/corona-crisis-temporary-emer... 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.

That's exactly what it is. Reasoning being two-fold, first is that it's easy to implement as the government knows the exact payroll of every company anyways (they file taxes quarterly), second is to keep people on the payroll in case restrictions can be loosened. They're still working, so can go back to productivity immediately.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#242

Post by tlogan »

ralph84 wrote: post #3

Directly via bailouts and indirectly via inflation, COVID was the biggest wealth transfer to the rich in history.

And this is one reason that we do not need to worry about inflation. All the money given to “not so wealthy” is already spent and gone.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#243

Post by tick_tock_tick »

pwillia7 wrote: post #154
deathcalibur wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't really people quitting actually because like you said, that could be good. It's more like the business can't pay to stay open because there aren't enough customers to cover the variable costs. So now the business is closed and you have no where to spend your money... This realistically only affects small businesses like your local grocery store or whatever. Once the pandemic lifts, all that cheap pr…

It's weird how the 'infallible invisible hand of the market' folks don't believe in it in practice. All the 'isms' seem like convenient excuses to justify selfish behavior in whatever way suits the argument and not these well thought out concrete theorems like we were lead to believe.

The context of this discussions is the government giving free money to people.... I don't understand how you equate that to people not believing in market forces.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#244

Post by tick_tock_tick »

e17 wrote: post #213
dalbasal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? European/Dutch & US rhetoric can be quite different... but the actual policies are not, at least not in a sense relevant to this issue. In fact, the US cut people a bigger piece of the covid relief money than did most european countries.

The US has even sent like $3k straight into the accounts of every citizen over the course of the pandemic! As far as I'm aware no other major country has done helicopter money like thia

Much more than that if you were unemployed.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#245

Post by trentnix »

anigbrowl wrote: post #232
trentnix wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to address that problem is to prevent "state institutions" from being so powerful as being able to do anyone's bidding .

Dysfunctional states aren't exactly thriving oases of enterprise and mutual aid, are they now? In practice they're dominated by warlords and rich people buy security and contract enforcement is a function of economic leverage, so poor people have very little economic mobility or opportunity.

A state’s dysfunction is not diminished by the relative largesse and power of its government.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#246

Post by TheRealPomax »

dalbasal wrote: post #18
TheRealPomax wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one would be surprised if this was about the US, but it's that "euro" symbol that makes it surprising.

Is it? European/Dutch & US rhetoric can be quite different... but the actual policies are not, at least not in a sense relevant to this issue. In fact, the US cut people a bigger piece of the covid relief money than did most european countries.

Yes, it is, because you constantly hear about dollars, and rarely hear about euros, in the bubbles that hacker news readers live in.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#247

Post by colordrops »

Sharlin wrote: post #208
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #151

Covid has got me thinking about the government’s role in social welfare. Providing social welfare through money allows for people to misallocate the money or skim off the top of the money. For the vast majority of people their covid stimulation money did not go into their pockets, it went to their landlord or their mortgage holder resulting in a massive wealth transfer from public funds to banks and those who own lan…

This… has been tried, many times, and been found to not work too well. First off, unless you socialize the whole economy (well, that has been tried as well), government-provided food is still bought from somebody , by the government, and typically this is seen as a superfluous and inefficient extra step. Second, people very much like going to a supermarket and being able to pick their groceries and other necessities,…

Has it been tried without means testing in a capitalist system though? Where only the most basic necessities are provided to anykne who wants them, and you can buy whatever else you want beyond that?

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#248

Post by julienb_sea »

e17 wrote: post #213
dalbasal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? European/Dutch & US rhetoric can be quite different... but the actual policies are not, at least not in a sense relevant to this issue. In fact, the US cut people a bigger piece of the covid relief money than did most european countries.

The US has even sent like $3k straight into the accounts of every citizen over the course of the pandemic! As far as I'm aware no other major country has done helicopter money like thia

The US money only went to households making below a certain threshold. Most other countries dumped heavily into their unemployment programs, sometimes funding full salaries for up to a fourth of the country over what is now looking like a 24 month period of time (see France).

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#249

Post by atoav »

Sharlin wrote: post #208
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #151

Covid has got me thinking about the government’s role in social welfare. Providing social welfare through money allows for people to misallocate the money or skim off the top of the money. For the vast majority of people their covid stimulation money did not go into their pockets, it went to their landlord or their mortgage holder resulting in a massive wealth transfer from public funds to banks and those who own lan…

This… has been tried, many times, and been found to not work too well. First off, unless you socialize the whole economy (well, that has been tried as well), government-provided food is still bought from somebody , by the government, and typically this is seen as a superfluous and inefficient extra step. Second, people very much like going to a supermarket and being able to pick their groceries and other necessities,…

I lived in Vienna and there the city ownes a good punch of social housing since the 50s. Only thing: these houses are built at a good standard and still cheaper to live in than other comparable offers. They also cleverly mixed them in theoughout the whole city. This means the money they invested here not only reduces rents overall, it also provides housing to people in need while at the same time counterbalancing the otherwise naturally evolving contrast between rich/poor districts. ll of this benefits the social climate of the city overall because people are not segregated into their own districts as much.

Vinnea was repeatedly voted to be the city most worth living in in world.

So:

- built social houses to a higher standard not a lower one

- Don't build blocks of social houses in one area but mix them in throughout the city (e.g. mandate this by law whenever new buildings are built)

- the rent should be lower than average and the same independent of the neighbourhood

- the waiting lists for this flats should priorize people in need who are poor, minorities, ill, students, single mothers, but occasionaly mix in people from wealthier background to avoid social stigma. In vienna even wealthy people see it as an achievement to get into one of these flats.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#250

Post by bredren »

nradov wrote: post #186
bredren wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The great recession resulted in the creation of Blackstone's Invitation Homes, which is the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the US. Homes that used to be owned and rented locally by individuals or small businesses are now rented and managed from elsewhere. Profits resulting from higher rents and cheaper maintenance flow to stock holders, creating bad incentives. These homes are no longer rotating into…

All homes are always on the market for sale, regardless of whether they are listed on the MLS or not. If you see one you like there's nothing stopping you from making an unsolicited offer to Blackstone's Invitation Homes.

Invitation Homes raises rents as much as possible.

It seems unlikely a typical landlord would need to raise rent at the same rate because they maintain their own operations and have no duty to shareholders.

An offer to buy from IH would need to beat IH’s own model for returns in such a substantial way that it would be overpriced and affect comparable home pricing in the area.

Thus, it is not similar to making an unsolicited offer to some regular home owner.

Post reply on HN