Several incredibly wealthy youtubers claim covid relief funding.

[Guest]

 

 

Summary

Several incredibly wealthy youtubers received millions in covid relief funds.

 

Quotes

Quote

"ProPublica's database of companies approved for over $150,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans and disclosed by the Small Business Administration showed that MrBeast YouTube LLC and Jeffree Star Cosmetics each received a loan of $350,000 to $1 million. The esports company FaZe Clan also received a loan worth $1 million to $2 million."

 

My thoughts

Considering how wealthy all these individuals are in incredibly unethical for these people to get these funds. Mr beast in particular always spends absurd amounts on his videos doing pretty silly things.

 

Sources

https://www.insider.com/mrbeast-faze-clan-jeffree-star-cosmetics-ppp-loans-coronavirus-relief-2020-9

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

Jeffre Star, Faze Clan...lol.

 

Having Googled the Star character, and knowing the way e-sports are run, is any surprise they use such tactics?

[Stahlmann]

Yeah sure Mr Beast suffered a lot from the covid situation to a degree where he lost money... Who actually signed off on these funds?

[nick name]

While I'm not a fan of many YouTube personalities -- we can't just assume these people aren't using that money as intended.  They may actually have support staff that they're using the money to continue paying.  But I wouldn't be surprised if they're not.  

[Rybo]

Don't cast aspersions unless you have access to their books.  Just because someone is personally wealthy doesn't mean they can afford to keep their staff employed when their income is swiped out from under them.  

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

@nick name @Rybo Aren't Youtubers and streamers making more than ever right now, since everyone is home with nothing else to do but watch Youtube?

 

Or am I missing something?

[Rybo]

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

@nick name @Rybo Aren't Youtubers and streamers making more than ever right now, since everyone is home with nothing else to do but watch Youtube?

 

Or am I missing something?

Maybe.  At the time of the COVID relief packages, advertisers were pretty much the first ones to stop, so YouTuber income was probably way down.  I remember people worrying that their ad revenue was down dramatically.  That seems to have turned around (and then some) at this point.  

[Dredgy]

4 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

@nick name @Rybo Aren't Youtubers and streamers making more than ever right now, since everyone is home with nothing else to do but watch Youtube?

 

Or am I missing something?

Advertising revenue was wayyyy down during the peak of the pandemic.

And video production is another industry that’s still largely shut down, so if they had money spent on shoots that never ended up happening or staff can’t congregate etc. There’s a lot of ways a large YouTube channel that employs multiple people could be significantly effected.

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Rybo said:

Don't cast aspersions unless you have access to their books.  Just because someone is personally wealthy doesn't mean they can afford to keep their staff employed when their income is swiped out from under them.  

Mr beast literally spends millions on videos.....If he spent half  on one video he could support his staff for years..... Nobody knows how he gets his absurd funding for videos. There's no way in hell sponsors would cover all this stuff.

[Tristerin]

Like the business owner in Florida who bought a Lambo then got caught.  Happening everywhere, not just gaming industry.  And the Government of USA /shrugs not their problem anymore.

[captain_to_fire]

52 minutes ago, BritTechTips said:

at MrBeast YouTube LLC and Jeffree Star Cosmetics each received a loan of $350,000 to $1 million

Do they even need it? It makes me think these people make terrible financial choices to even be granted with such. 

[Rybo]

1 minute ago, Tristerin said:

Like the business owner in Florida who bought a Lambo then got caught.  Happening everywhere, not just gaming industry.  And the Government of USA /shrugs not their problem anymore.

The whole point of the package was to be quick and easy.  Every check or restriction would make it take longer to deliver aid to those who needed it. 

I.E., fraud and/or unethical behavior was, unfortunately, expected and unavoidable.  I don't love it, but I'd rather have it as it is than to find that the majority of legitimate people who partook of the aid had to instead close their businesses forever.  

[RejZoR]

53 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

Yeah sure Mr Beast suffered a lot from the covid situation to a degree where he lost money... Who actually signed off on these funds?

Probably the one who got 25% out of it and the rest went to these people. It's a plus plus when you're handing out someone else's money anyway right?

[Tristerin]

8 minutes ago, Rybo said:

The whole point of the package was to be quick and easy.  Every check or restriction would make it take longer to deliver aid to those who needed it. 

I.E., fraud and/or unethical behavior was, unfortunately, expected and unavoidable.  I don't love it, but I'd rather have it as it is than to find that the majority of legitimate people who partook of the aid had to instead close their businesses forever.  

You should research this abuse of our taxpayer monies more.  Companies who received still layed off.  Payroll Protection.  Not bottom line protection.  I, as a business owner, disagree wholeheartedly that the American Taxpayers Monies should have been so frivolously given out.  

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

7 minutes ago, Rybo said:

The whole point of the package was to be quick and easy.  Every check or restriction would make it take longer to deliver aid to those who needed it. 

I.E., fraud and/or unethical behavior was, unfortunately, expected and unavoidable.  I don't love it, but I'd rather have it as it is than to find that the majority of legitimate people who partook of the aid had to instead close their businesses forever.  

I agree fully with this. Easy and quick access to the money for those that need it is indeed essential.

 

People accepting money/loans etc related to COVID relief have to certify that they have been negatively impacted financially due to the corona virus.

 

I do hope that going forward, there are thorough investigations to discover anyone who fraudulently received money. Those scumbags are the lowest of the low and should be severely punished.

[Rybo]

1 minute ago, Tristerin said:

You should research this abuse of our taxpayer monies more.  Companies who received still layed off.  Payroll Protection.  Not bottom line protection.  I, as a business owner, disagree wholeheartedly that the American Taxpayers Monies should have been so frivolously given out.  

If I'm being honest, my personal opinion on the matter is that people and businesses shouldn't operate so close to the brink of destruction that they can't survive a few months with reduced income.  I.E., we should have distributed no funds at all.

But we're operating under the premise that vast numbers of small business owners were in that situation and needed the money immediately.  And in that context, I understand the logic of offering the money with no strings attached.  

Having said that, misusing the money is technically against the rules.  Are you saying there's widespread misuse of the money?  Given how long this lockdown has been in place, I wouldn't think it unreasonable that people still get furloughed despite the aid -- the aid money ran out after, what, the first month?  

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 hour ago, BritTechTips said:

My thoughts

Considering how wealthy all these individuals are in incredibly unethical for these people to get these funds. 

 

I think you are deeply confused. Your source talks about loans, not transfers. Large loans go to large operations, meant to be repaid in finite time. What would make no sense is to lend millions to a tiny business that won't generate enough revenue to pay it back, with or without pandemic. 

 

Now, it could be the case that these (subsidized?) loans are insufficiently /poorly targeted, but just pointing at how big their channels are is misleading. 

[Tristerin]

52 minutes ago, Rybo said:

 I.E., we should have distributed no funds at all.

I actually stopped reading at this line and quoted you - I will read the rest in a second - why - I 100000000% concur.  Shame on shitty owners for overspending.

 

My gym lost a little money, but the "War Chest" as we call it, was plenty full.  At the repair shop, cars always need repairs, no real change there in people coming and paying.

 

EDIT - The Gun Shows lost a TON of money.  Cities shut down on us, and no refunds available for deposits, advertising, work paid already to prepare for the show with 3 months or so before we could have another show.  Either way it didn't shut us down because I hate loans, so save as much as possible

 

52 minutes ago, Rybo said:

 the aid money ran out after, what, the first month?  

If you have a Payroll Protection Loan with no strings attached the requested amount was to keep business' operating, and there is widespread knowledge (google) that while companies received these monies, furloughs (are unpaid leaves of absences (temporary)), and layoffs (both occurred) are with no expectation of a job waiting for you.  Both go against what this was supposed to protect.   

[Rybo]

1 minute ago, Tristerin said:

If you have a Payroll Protection Loan with no strings attached the requested amount was to keep business' operating, and there is widespread knowledge (google) that while companies received these monies, furloughs are unpaid leaves of absences (temporary), and layoffs are with no expectation of a job waiting for you.  Both go against what this was supposed to protect.   

My understanding is that the PPE was a grant if used to cover payroll or a loan if used to cover other operating expenses.  The people who didn't pay their employees will eventually have to pay it back.  

Not a business owner so I didn't look into it that deeply, though.  Hopefully we're just still in the middle of it and once we get back to a state of normalcy those chickens will come home to roost.  The feds will ask banks to check up on their lendees and the banks will start asking probing questions about how the money was used  

[poochyena]

Their businesses were given loans. Some of these comments act as if the individuals were given cash checks. I don't seen any problem with any small business getting a loan. As others pointed out, youtubers make a lot of money from advertisers, of which stopped advertising during the first wave of the pandemic since their businesses were shut down, and thus no point in advertising it. Practically every business was hit hard for at least a few weeks.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

These are loans so given that it's expected this money is to be paid back, I don't really see much of an issue with what's happening here. If it was a bailout or a loan that'll just be written off, then I would have an issue with it. 

 

Though I will say that I'm skeptical of Mr Beast LLC's claim that 

Quote

many of its brand partnerships had fallen through during the pandemic.

Many of the brands YouTubers partner with are online based. Many of the special offers YouTubers provide to their viewers via these brand partnerships are for online purchases only. So it's hard for me to believe that they've been hit as badly as say your local restaurant down the street. If anything, these partnerships are a gold mine now because everyone is doing their shopping online so services like Honey and VPNs are being utilized more. Also, I find it funny how in the article OP linked, hey look it's a Mr Beast Honey ad. He must be doing so poorly... ha...

 

That being said, I had little respect for these YouTubers to begin with since they usually turn in rich snobs... but that's American culture for you. 

[bcredeur97]

I don't think MrBeast actually uses his youtube earnings to increase his wealth? I mean look at how much he gives away. If anything I see a guy who lives off of what he needs and the rest just goes into his videos...
He may have needed funds because they couldn't make videos and he had to pay his team? 

That's the only logical explanation I can come up with here...

[Roswell]

8 hours ago, BritTechTips said:

Mr beast literally spends millions on videos.....If he spent half  on one video he could support his staff for years..... Nobody knows how he gets his absurd funding for videos. There's no way in hell sponsors would cover all this stuff.

Before he was a phenomenon there was a ton of skepticism about whether or not his videos were staged. Now that he’s internet famous most people just believe it and the skeptics are drowned in the echo chamber. I’m sure everything isn’t what it seems with the dude, who knows?

[Trik'Stari]

14 hours ago, Rybo said:

Don't cast aspersions unless you have access to their books.  Just because someone is personally wealthy doesn't mean they can afford to keep their staff employed when their income is swiped out from under them.  

It floors me how many people just have completely wrong ideas about people more wealthy than them.

 

I'm not wealthy, but I've known wealthy people. Turns out some of them just have really good credit and enough cash flow to stay afloat most of the time.