AIG | Courtesy Image Google Search
All this bullshit bailout talk has gotten me thinking about how f*cking-halfass backwards this whole situation is, as well as our country. The government gave AIG Billions of taxpayer dollars to do what with…give BONUSES to CEO’s???? WTF?
A bonus(in my definition) is meant to reward someone for hard work or a job well done. Common sense tells us that AIG’s business practice has been less than perfect. Who at AIG deserves a fucking bonus?(Rewarded for running a company into the ground????) I’m pissed that our government even gave them money. Fuck ‘em!!!, they screwed up all on their own…but, the government steps in and hands them an unimaginable amount of money…
Can you even visualize that amount of money? I can’t(our mainstream media has numbed us to the real value of money, by constantly throwing huge figures in our face.)
If AIG posted record losses totalling in the Billions, why jump to give them un-earned money. Obviously they’re paying themselves too much compared with what they’re bringing in as a business. This is the catalyst of something bigger to come!
There’s no hope for improving our country unless WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE stand up and voice our opinions and displeasure in the way our tax payer’s money is being used and also the way our country is being governed.
The people running our government are getting away with all this shit because most American’s are so damn busy with work, bills, raising families and voting for American Idol, that they can’t see through the lies & wool that’s been pulled over their eyes.
In my honest opinion, a large percentage of Americans are willfully ignorant, they accept the way things are and rarely ever question authority, we call them Sheeple….and the few Americans who actually have common sense and voice their opinions are usually labeled as being un-American/patriotic. But, as Bill Maher said “I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out it’s flaws?”
About my thought process:
I do not side with any one political party or belief system, nor do I use labels to associate myself with any one group or ideology. I am always learning new things and my view point is constantly being updated and refined, so therefore I think it’s unintelligent to put my foot down and say that any one thing is totally/ultimately TRUE.
Life is uncertain, unexplained, and less than perfect!
-Ego
I agree in principle. I think most people agree with this – in principle. It’s very aggravating. Of course, the devil is always in the details, as they say.
My understanding is that these were so-called “retention” bonuses; money that is paid as part of the employment contract – as a reward for not quitting. They were NOT “performance bonuses” although this seems to be a very common idea out there in the public meme, and the basis of your rant.
With that in mind, there were contracts which obligated AIG to pay bonuses to anyone who didn’t quit to go work for another company. If they didn’t quit, they got the bonuses. Period.
Maybe the government shouldn’t have bailed out AIG. We’ve been told that it would have brought down the whole financial system if we didn’t do it. I don’t know? And we wonder why these companies sign up for such bad deals in the first place?
But I DO know that having bailed out AIG, the government still has NO power to unilaterally abrogate employment contracts. This isn’t a fascist dictatorship …yet.
Sometimes people point to the auto industry and how the employees there had to give back all kinds of things and renegotiate new contracts before the government would give the car companies any loans. And that is true. ….Some people see this as a bias against blue collar workers versus the white collar workers of Wall Street.
However, the auto workers agreed to this deal. The government couldn’t have forced it. And it was a condition of bailout money. In contrast, the government didn’t ask AIG to renegotiate contracts back in September of last year when the bailout deal was ACTUALLY made.
It’s important to remember that: Even though AIG is still getting money, it is under a bailout deal that was negotiated and announced on September 16, 2008.
Again, there is no government power to unilaterally abrogate civil contracts.
If we don’t like this deal (and we don’t) then we need to recognize that the only way the government can get our money back is to institute a 100 percent tax on bonuses paid out by companies that received bailout money.
That’s one thing the government CAN do, and some in congress have at leased mouthed support for such a thing. Despite all the partisan rhetoric, that is probably the ONLY thing the government can legally do about this. And I bet that some of the people who scream loudest about the bonuses now will fight tooth and nail against that tax and will prevent it from going through congress.
That’ because, in my opinion, most of the politicians hollering now are just mouthing populist bullshit rhetoric: They don’t mean it. And we know this because some of them were the same ones who successfully opposed putting conditions on the bailout in the first place.
Sorry to be a stick in the mud. I’m a major believer in reality; a position which is seldom popular.
Great feedback! Very valid points you brought up!
It would be awesome to think that maybe…just maybe, the people receiving those bonus’ would have thought for a minute: “Perhaps it would look good or be somewhat beneficial to not accept these bonus’, ya know maybe help out the struggling company…take one for the team” …but then again we’re all human, and I’m sure that if I were in their position I would do the same thing and accept that “FAT” bonus. I can’t say what type of mindset I would have if I were a CEO of such a large company. I’m sure I would get used to such a large salary, and eventually wouldn’t settle for less. Who knows…
“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” – George Washington
-Ego