Stand back. I'm about to get all political . . . lol!
I normally don't address this kind of stuff on this blog but I cannot stand it any longer!
This whole AIG bonus mess has me SO frustrated. I finally had to turn off the news last night for the sake of my sanity.
To me this seems fairly simple (and this is how I understand it but someone correct me if I have the facts wrong):
-Edward Liddy: CEO of AIG came in AFTER the government gave over the bailout money and AFTER the contracts permitting the bonuses were given. Lay off him people! He's taking a salary of $1 a year and has no stock options in the company. He was brought in to clean up a mess the government helped create and now the government is making him the bad guy.
-Goverment: Oh, I am so tired of the government pretending they had no hand in this. It was their job to write in exclusions for these bonuses when they gave the bailout money. They didn't. Their fault. It's probably a good idea to read the bill before you pass it. I'm just sayin' . . .
-Workers who got bonuses: Not saying they did a great job. Not saying they're free and clear from this mess. But the bonuses were in their contracts and it was up to the government to do something about that before they gave the bailout money. Oh for goodness sakes, please don't release their names to the public. These people are getting death threats and that would be disasterous for them and their families. And the tax idea is ridiculous. You can't take people's money because you don't like how they got it . . . especially when you gave it to them in the first place! (Ahem - government).
Okay.
I feel better.
Thanks for letting me rant.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
L-
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting your comments. I too think this whole discussion is ultimately depressing and not fruitful because of our societal inclinations to scapegoat someone or some entity for our problems.
-Is it Mr. Liddy's (or Mr. Geithner's) fault that retention bonuses have been standard operating procedures in good performance or bad?
-Is it the Congress or Administration's fault that AIG exploited the regulatory structure to make vast (and temporarily profitable) contracts that necessitated (according to conventional wisdom) a bailout that couldn't be executed omnisciently?
-How do we avoid scape-goating people (or government) and actually try to realize positive change within ourselves and society?
-Or perhaps - what do we think of our system that gives vastly inequitable pay (i.e. executive pay 300 or more times that of a common worker) based on individual performance, even if those rewards come at the expense of others well-being? Are we following God or Money? And that doesn't try to make a bogey-man of executives - but it seems to be a societal norm not just something at AIG?
Just a thought - how do we move beyond anger - and what should we move to?