The human body is an amazing thing. All of the outrage and hand-wringing about the AIG bonuses has caused me to roll my eyes so many times that I’d have thought for sure they’d have fallen completely out of my head but, alas, they have not.
There are a few problems with the incessant bitching.
First, as illustrated above, we’re talking about one-tenth of one percent of the bailout. One penny for every ten dollars. It’s like lending a friend a few hundred bucks to get through the month and then bitching when he buys a pack of gum. Yes, $100 million is a lot of money, but let’s keep it in context here. We’re talking about an incredibly small portion of billions of dollars.
Second, it’s very likely that AIG had to pay the bonuses. It’s difficult for people to understand, I guess, but the executives of multi-billion-dollar companies don’t get the same treatment that the receptionist does. They have employment contracts, guaranteed bonuses, and so on. I can only imagine the time and money that would be wasted in court if AIG had violated those contracts.
On top of that, let’s keep in mind that congress was the one that allowed it to happen and now that people are angry they’re doing what they do best: pandering. Feigned anger. Strong words.
Besides, in such a large-scale clusterfuck, who do you blame? Who can you blame? Is there any one AIG executive that was in a position to see what was coming? If so, why didn’t he warn the rest of us? When a house of cards falls, how do you decide which card it was that caused it?
But, really, what did you expect? When the government made the decision to save struggling businesses from themselves, they tacitly condoned the practices that got us into this mess. This is why small government is better: fewer things to screw up.
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