At 300,000 deaths and a crippled economy, we are now on the verge of another stimulus bill from Congress to keep the country afloat.

Unemployment checks are running out along with paycheck protection and renter forgiveness. Lacking a stimulus bill, we will see even worse income inequality and hardship for hard-working people on the edge - evictions and hunger while the stock-holding class watches their unearned income hit record highs.

But there is another issue we need to tackle: who gets the stimulus money? Corporations or people? For months, corporations have been lining up at the federal trough via their lobbyists and lawyers and political contributions for a bite at the next COVID bailout apple.

Which leads us to this discussion. Why do we prize capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down, as NYU Professor Scott Galloway asks?

We are all for ruthless, capitalist competition among companies. It breeds innovation, lower prices, creates prosperity that grows the economy and helps people out of poverty. We reward risk-takers with wealth when they win on those risks. We argue about how unfettered that capitalism should be. I like more regulation to spread the spoils and guard against evildoers. Republicans want less. (Not sure why they want less but that’s a different column)

My issue for this week is what happens when things go bad, on the way down. We are all for capitalism on the way up. But why aren’t we for capitalism when things go bad? After the 9-11 terror attacks, we spent ourselves in hoc for national security (war). In 2008, Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry Paulson got down on one knee and begged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bail out the Wall Street banks to save the country from the George W. Bush recession of historical proportions (unfettered capitalism).

Obama and Congress bailed out the auto industry to save the jobs of the workers and avoid a depression. I supported it then. Not sure now.

Then COVID hit and here we go again. A massive Trump recession and we taxpayers find ourselves bailing out airlines, cargo companies and Boeing. Why do we protect these companies with government money? That is socialism. If you are against socialism, then be against it. You can’t support billions to lure Amazon to Queens and be for competition at the same time.

We should let companies fail. That’s right. Let them go bankrupt. Galloway at NYU calls bailouts hate crimes against future generations because they have to pay the bill.

We do this as the companies wanting federal stimulus money bought back their stock, increased their dividends and paid their executives huge sums. They jacked their stock price and left themselves without the rainy day money necessary to weather the COVID recession.

Those free-marketers who love capitalism suddenly support socialism bailouts for the companies who should be taking the pipe.

Let them fail. Failure is good. It forces innovation, creates new relationships and new companies. Chapter 11 protects workers. The only people hurt are the stockholders and hedge funds who invested in the company. They took risk. Sometimes they win. Sometimes they lose. That’s capitalism. And I am all for it.

Instead of giving taxpayer money to Delta and Boeing, we should give money directly to people to tide them over. They use that money to start new businesses, pay rent and mortgages, eat and shop. That's the economy.

Bailing out failing corporations is crony capitalism and another example of how we have lost the ethic built in World War II when companies turned factories into the greatest industrial machine in history to defeat Fascism. What have these huge companies done for the country in the pandemic? I await the stories about how Delta Airlines helped in this war effort.

The last relief package at $2 trillion in March included a massive tax cut for rich people and direct grants to major corporations. Our children are expected to pay that back - to China by the way. As usual, the U.S. Senate made the wealthier more wealthy and threw scraps to Uber drivers and food delivery people. As I like to say - Bernie was right.

Next time you see a big corporation take out a full-page ad saying “We are all in this together?’’ ask yourself what they have done to protect their employees or contribute to the COVID effort.

I’m a capitalist. If airlines and car companies can’t make it, let them go bankrupt. That’s capitalism.

Sources and thanks -

Scott Galloway, NYU professor, podcast host, major capitalist and author of Post Corona, from Crisis to Opportunity