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

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

#81

Post by maxsilver »

MangoCoffee wrote: post #37
savant_penguin wrote: post #7

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

>Fund people, not companies 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...

>mom and pop shop that is forced to close during the peak should receive money.

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.

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

#82

Post by bazooka_penguin »

savant_penguin wrote: post #7

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

Lock down the economy, kill small businesses, hand out printed money like candy to big corporations. Nothing suspicious going on...

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

#83

Post by beiller »

mminer237 wrote: post #27
ralph84 wrote: post #3

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

How does inflation help the rich? Doesn't that devalue their net worth?

If everyone's bank account balance goes up by 50% uniformly, lets say one person has 100,000 and another has 10,000. After the increase they now have 150,000 and 15,000 respectively. But the low end item costs also go up due to inflation, so food now costs 50% more lets say. The thinking is that this eats into the lower bracket much more than the higher one. So inflation would increase the divide between rich and poor. I think this makes sense, interested if I am wrong here please let me know your thoughts!

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

#84

Post by isaacremuant »

ralph84 wrote: post #3

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

It wasn't covid. It was the policies imposed in the name of covid. Including the absolutely unnecessary lockdowns and other restrictions that very rapidly exempted the elites and those making the decisions.

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

#85

Post by hdhjebebeb »

garmaine wrote: post #76
slowhand09 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not rich here. Wife's company got COVID loans. They were forgiven. Company had to prove money was spent on rent, salaries, benefits. Company didn't make money on it. Employees were able to keep their jobs. No bonuses involved there.

What did they do with the regular income they had during that period that would have gone to rent, salaries, etc.?

you're so close...

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

#86

Post by aeyes »

hugoromano wrote: post #12

Stop using marketplaces and book directly, these companies have no risks and take 16% to 30% commissions. If consumers start booking directly, recovery from the pandemic will be much faster.

This doesn't work anymore, the platform is also used for discovering places.

I have seen this both as a traveller and working in the industry for a little while. If you are not on Booking.com you might as well close, 95% of our reservations came through Booking.com, the rest were other platforms, direct bookings and people walking in.

As a traveller its extremely convenient. I have a single place to do everything, I don't need to sign up anywhere else, I don't have to call, I don't have to worry about payments, in general everything just works without ever speaking to a human, I don't lose time calling around to check availability, I can see fotos and opinions. Consumers are not going to give that up.

On the hospitality side we never cared much about their fees, it has massive benefits as well (lower fraud rate, lower no show rate, integration with front desk software). The only problem is that they generally tend to give the customer the benefit of the doubt when there are any problems so good luck getting rid of bad reviews.

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

#89

Post by garmaine »

cambaceres wrote: post #70
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, instead of funding either corporation, just give mom and pop money. Instead of business bailouts, we should've done regular, recurring stimulus checks that would help business owners cover bills while they're businesses were closed, and help employees cover bills while they're unable to work.

Have you counted on how much this would have costed?

The amount the US government has spent on pandemic relief is 20-30k per American, depending on how you choose to count.

(Edit: I’m aware TFA is about about European pandemic relief.)

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

#90

Post by ChrisLomont »

ralph84 wrote: post #3

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

>via inflation

The poor tend to be net borrowers. The rich tend to be net lenders. Inflation makes the poor less in debt by lowering the real value of payback. Inflation helps borrowers.

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