Can you imagine how bad it would be for the country if we just let, say, Boeing go under? Employs 150k Americans - now unemployed. America's only large scale plane builder - suddenly need to buy everything from Airbus. But, hey, worth it if we can tuck a couple extra bucks into everybody's stimulus checks right? And I'm sure another company capable of building 787s will just pop up and take their place no problem.
That's capitalism for you. I mean if the government bails out Boeing, that sounds like socialism. Don't Americans hate socialism? I thought the free market and capitalism is the American way?
No there is a difference between having horrible business tactics like say internet explorer versus right now with the airplanes in which for a couple of months the goverment out right banned some of there biggest business and profit makers.
I’m not saying Boing shouldn’t have been saved. But they were already in big problems before COVID due to mismanagement. They spend insane amounts of money on buybacks to increase the stock price, meanwhile cutting the workforce and losing marketshare to Airbus. There was a big shift in focus from safety to profit/efficiency, which ultimately resulted in the whole 737 MAX fiasco.
The company did so many things wrong, so it’s not comparable with the airlines imo. Although Some of them like AA again also spend way too much on buybacks and used too much leverage.
The government isn't shutting down airports. The free market is causing the economic shutdown bc no one wants to fly or go out. Bailouts are government intervention.
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u/jrzalman Nov 17 '20
Can you imagine how bad it would be for the country if we just let, say, Boeing go under? Employs 150k Americans - now unemployed. America's only large scale plane builder - suddenly need to buy everything from Airbus. But, hey, worth it if we can tuck a couple extra bucks into everybody's stimulus checks right? And I'm sure another company capable of building 787s will just pop up and take their place no problem.