Billionaires Hate Bailing Out Billionaires
A bunch of tech investors and CEOs are criticizing the COVID bailouts because the funds are going to help shareholders (i.e., the 1% who own 50%+ of all equity) at the expense of employees and taxpayers (who will foot the bill).
Here’s what some of them had to say:
- Chamath Palihapitiya: On Main Street today, people are getting wiped out. Right now, rich CEOs are not, boards that have horrible governance are not. People are.
- Bill Gurley: Let’s be candid. If you believe in business & capitalism, then there are zero circumstances where the government should bail out equity holders. $GM and $GS were mistakes. If the gov’t is the lender of last resort, they should own all of the equity.
- Mark Cuban: If I gave a company money, I would want equity, preferred shares, warrants, whatever we negotiate. If they don’t like my deal they can go elsewhere. The same should apply for taxpayer money.
🤔 What do you all think?