The AIG Bonus Farce
If you have been paying any attention at all to the news, then you have undoubtably heard that AIG is paying out $165 million in bonuses to its executives. This may anger you, to know that millions of your tax dollars are going to a group of people who played a large part in driving our economy into the ground. But let’s take a step back.
Thus far, the US government has poured $170 billion into AIG. Those bonuses everyone is up in arms about amount to less than a tenth of one percent of this bailout. An insignificant number, in perspective, the same could happen from a rounding error.
Yet the press and the government would have you believe that this is the largest injustice ever perpetrated on the American people. They would like you to forget that it was they who created this monster by making the case for, then enacting these bailouts, against the will of the people.
Our government wasted $170 billion in taxpayer dollars, while a mere $165 million was squandered on AIG execs. Yet the AIG execs are the ones with their backs against the wall, not congressmen or people at the Fed, or the journalists who sold this deal to America.
But you can’t talk about AIG without talking about her creditors. The reason AIG was about to fail is that it owed way more money than it had. To whom, you might ask? Goldman, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, etc. you know, the people we’ve been bailing out. Now guess where the AIG bailout money is going.
That’s right. These banks and investment houses just got another round of bailouts, funneled through AIG. They were paid back in full on their crappy investments with AIG. And people want to complain about $165 million, when Goldman just got another $12.9 billion.
I have to give props to those AIG executives who found a way to profit from our massively fucked up system. They not only bankrupted their company and brought the global economy to its knees, but they got a bonus for doing so. My share of the AIG bonuses comes to about 55 cents. This is a small price to pay to expose our government as completely and utterly incompetent.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
How is this not my post?
Surely you have come around on seeing the problems with the bailout but wow this is a very strong denunciation.
Now if only Darwin were susceptible to reason. That would truly be something.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
The outcry you hear against the AIG bonuses isn’t fiscal scholars worrying that these bonuses could upset the delicate balance of the stimulus package. That roar you’re hearing is the sound of an outraged public. It’s the sound of French peasants sharpening their guillotine blades.
It’s no secret that America has a ruling class. political and financial power both travel in families and social circles, and members of the upper class have so many thousands of times more money and power and influence than the common man that any claim of egalitarianism is simply laughable. But we’ve accepted this for centuries based on the capitalist rhtoric which says the rich are being compnensated for extraordinary skills and abilities, which allow them to keep the entire economy strong and safe, benefitting everyone in the country. Now, with the system crashing around our ears, real people suffereing, and both the political and financial elites revealed as at the very least incompetent and uncarring and at worst criminals and frauds, the general public is no longer willing to accept that rhetoric.
The outrage at the AIG bonuses isn’t because it’s a misuse of the bailout funds, it’s because it’s a final, incredibly blatant and insulting confirmation of the fact that competency, hard work, and good results are NOT what is rewarded in this economy, and that the elites we entrust our economy to are completely corrupt and looking out only for themselves. And the reason politicians are denouncing these bonuses is because they recognize the only way to keep public confidence in themselves is to throw some of the other elites to the lions in an attempt to placate the angry masses.