Hi Paul,

I'm a bit confused: you slag Morrison for being tough in order to save lives, and you slag Trump (fair enough) for being sloppy in order to save profits.

Have you suddenly become a (horrors !) a centrist ?

I should wash my mouth out !

But welcome, anyway.

Joe

Hi Joe,

I would say, your attitude and opinions, and my attitude and opinions, regarding the response to the covid-19, both from a health and economic point of view are very much the same. In fairness to our politicians they were a bit slow of the mark, but they were flying blind. Once the polys understood the full heath implications they were quick to act. Of course some decisions have been questionable and uncoordinated, but what else can we expect, we are all in uncharted waters.

As for Trump, before this I held him in fairly low regard, but now what can I say, the evidence against him is overwhelming.

Hi Paul,

Agreed. I used to have a very low opinion of Trump, as a bully, moron, rat-bag, slime and liar. But I realise now that I held him in far too high a regard. He may end up being responsible for the break-up of the United States.

As for capitalism, it will pretty much always survive, there will always be opportunists and enterprisers who take advantage of every situation and make new forms of bucks: Rahm Emmanuel's maxim, that every crisis provides opportunities, really should be capitalism's slogan.

Joe

Hey Paul1405,

- Back onto the topic of Virgin:
What do you think about QLD's offer to help to the tune of 200m?

I don't know whether or not the money is well spent.
Didn't Virgin firstly ask for a loan, but then QLD gives them a 200m gift?

If Virgin was a good profitable looking venture going forward wouldn't they find investors rushing to jump onboard elsewhere?
And if the owners themselves aren't willing to inject more capital into it and are considering winding it up doesn't it show that they're pessimistic about Virgins profitability going forward re COVID-19?

I live in QLD and we seem to have an over reliance on tourist dollars.
Right now there's 2bn being spent on airport runways.

Queenslanders will benefit from reduced airfare pricing with 2 national carriers, but who stands to actually profit from Virgin staying operating?
That would be the airports themselves.

People have been asked to weather the storm and work together during COVID-19.
If Virgin goes bust (And TigerAir too as it's Virgin's the low budget subsidiary - I didn't know this previously)
- Then it's the airports themselves who will lose.
What sort of a deal are they offering to reduce costs to Virgin to ensure they pay their bills and keep the dollars flowing?
Otherwise they're going to have empty terminals and not make anything anyway.

The government wants to pay to make them stay, but how much concessions are the airports themselves willing to give to keep Virgin's business?

Where are all these tourists going to come from post pandemic?
I can't see people rushing to get back on those death cruises in a hurry?
I think post Covid the world is generally promoting a 'Don't go overseas - check out your own country first' attitude.
Finally, is it even responsible to be promoting tourism in a pandemic climate?
As I said, the QLD economy relies heavily on tourism.

Shadow Minister,

You posted above at p.9 that capitalism "has survived the last few millennia and is not looking particularly ill now."

Where did you get the idea that capitalism existed several thousands of years ago?

Virgin has only paid a dividend twice in the last 12 years, so it is not
a gold plated investment. Then just what state will the travel business
be in after this is all over ?
They may not have all those flights to meet cruise ships either.