I understand the sentiment behind no aid if you're paying dividends (if you have enough money for dividends then you clearly don't need aid), but I don't see how it can be defined in any way that seems even remotely fair.
Is it whether you paid dividends recently in the past? Because remember businesses are supposed to pay dividends -- and you could have been profitable enough to pay a dividend in January but now deep in losses -- and whether they paid dividends in any particular recent timeframe can be fairly arbitrary.
And if it means being prohibited from paying dividends for a period of time going forwards, this seems similarly arbitrary -- basically any business can just pause dividends, then as soon as the time period expires, and immediately or gradually pay the previous dividends they didn't.
Coming up with any useful definition for whether a company deserves aid or not, short of whether they're actually filing for bankruptcy, is already incredibly difficult, but basing it on dividends is beyond simplistic. Different types of businesses have such wildly different patterns of savings and cash flows they're extremely hard to compare or draw any kind of line between "responsible" and "irresponsible" companies.
Based on the article, it looks like the primary form of aid is zero interest loans. It seems perfectly fair and reasonable to me that you can't pay dividends until you pay back the loan.
Is it whether you paid dividends recently in the past? Because remember businesses are supposed to pay dividends -- and you could have been profitable enough to pay a dividend in January but now deep in losses -- and whether they paid dividends in any particular recent timeframe can be fairly arbitrary.
And if it means being prohibited from paying dividends for a period of time going forwards, this seems similarly arbitrary -- basically any business can just pause dividends, then as soon as the time period expires, and immediately or gradually pay the previous dividends they didn't.
Coming up with any useful definition for whether a company deserves aid or not, short of whether they're actually filing for bankruptcy, is already incredibly difficult, but basing it on dividends is beyond simplistic. Different types of businesses have such wildly different patterns of savings and cash flows they're extremely hard to compare or draw any kind of line between "responsible" and "irresponsible" companies.