Companies are more that just a collection of people.
Do we stop all output and just have the government mail checks to every individual forever? That’s not going to work. Who is going to produce the things we need to function as a society?
> They could temporarily lay off all their staff
So you pay people's salaries while they're furloughed. Together with moratoria (don't know if this is the word) on loans this means companies get “paused” while lockdowns are ongoing and don't shut down.
I know of at least one company in the latter category where the owner pocketed around $500k and I don't think it had much impact on how they ran their business. All they had to do was not layoff people they wouldn't have anyway and the government picked up the tab on their labor costs for a year. Free money!
/s
Look into “modern monetary theory”
No, they shouldn't. Don't give any money to any corporations, give all the money exclusively to people.
If Mom and Pop run a business, they can get cash as humans to float their business, just like any human could. They could temporarily lay off all their staff (which is OK, because their staff are humans, and are also getting cash)
There was never any valid reason to give a single cent to any company.