Last night over a cup of warm Tab I was perusing the world wide Kardashian (internet) and was reading about Elon Musk's 'motives' for laying off thousands of Twitter employees late last year after he acquired the online toliet...eh...I mean micro-blogging service.
Big 'E' said he has canned almost 85% of the original workforce.
This will no-doubt rankle many who claim Mr. Tesla has done this for political purposes...as this has already been bandied about across social media ad nauseum. Others are saying it's purely a business move.
"Carroll Merrill...would you open door #3 please?"
Billionaires don't suddenly decide to blow their billions to piss off the 'other party'...I don't give a rats posterior how crazy they are
Now, here's the difference between this scenario and what the airlines were forced to do when the Pandy hit in 2020:
As most know, the carriers got humongous stimulus money (cue the Billions) on the condition they would not lay anyone off until...I think it was October of that year...again, if memory serves. Well, several of the airlines started giving the heave-ho when the vomitorium passed but they ALSO pushed thousands in to early retirement...it was an end-around move to cut costs and keep more of the stimulus. Sorry, free money.
Now, before you get the fancy-pants idea that I'm only an 'anti-airline cheer for the little guy'...guy, not true.
Here's the truth: If it weren't for the massive airline stimulus, we'd likely have one major airline. You think airfares are high now?? Tune in to 'hell on earth' for the answer.
Musk: He can do whatever he wants because he now owns the big birdy outright. And what he did was cut costs, pure and simple.
Airlines are severely hamstrung and have been for 40 years. So they took their 'get out jail free' card and used it to maximum benefit.
`THAT'S the difference my esteemed and impeccably dressed co-horts:
The difference is exactly ZERO.
Most businesses large and small will sell your Grandmother to improve profits and/or avoid failing.
What happened 3 years prior is 'the people that matter' thought it would be a great idea to ruin the economy. Then they turned around and exclaimed "oh...sorry...we didn't know THIS would happen. Here's some billions to make it all better." (Hint: YOUR billions)
Sometimes we need to take a step back, take the oatmeal out of our eyes, and look at things for how they really are.
And exactly what are they? This might open your eyes.