I'm upset.
Along with most tax-paying citizens, I find the thought of paying a bonus to anyone in any department at AIG to be simply unfathomable. And don't give me the bit about contract law. I spent 15 years as a corporate attorney, I know the drill. Most of the employees in question are employees at will. Yes, they might be contractually obligated to a bonus, but they are not contractually obligated to a job. For me, the choice would be very, very simple. Take your bonus and walk or forego the bonus and work with us, and the taxpayers who saved your job, and let's turn this thing around.
But more than that, I'm upset that while AIG has received, to date, about 180 Billion in bail out funds (and that's your money folks), apparently without conditions precluding the payment of bonuses, the Senate concurrently saw fit to scale back and whittle down the funding appropriated for schools. So let me get this straight. AIG.....here's a check. A really BIG check. Schools....here's some money, but let's hold off before we do too much more because we're not sure an investment in education is "stimulating" enough.
Fine.
That would be my Exhibit A under the definition of "short sighted thinking."
If AIG fails, we will survive. The country will go on. If our schools continue to fail the millions of children each year who are dropping out, checking out, or doing just enough to get by but are otherwise functionally illiterate and virtually unemployable, then the looming human crisis will make the current capital crisis look tame by comparison. I am not an economist. I have not spent one day on Wall Street. But I think our first priority should be to invest in people. In children. And in the institutions that will dictate our future.
Of course, that's just me.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I'm just baying into the wind.
But I'm angry, folks.
Really angry.
Along with most tax-paying citizens, I find the thought of paying a bonus to anyone in any department at AIG to be simply unfathomable. And don't give me the bit about contract law. I spent 15 years as a corporate attorney, I know the drill. Most of the employees in question are employees at will. Yes, they might be contractually obligated to a bonus, but they are not contractually obligated to a job. For me, the choice would be very, very simple. Take your bonus and walk or forego the bonus and work with us, and the taxpayers who saved your job, and let's turn this thing around.
But more than that, I'm upset that while AIG has received, to date, about 180 Billion in bail out funds (and that's your money folks), apparently without conditions precluding the payment of bonuses, the Senate concurrently saw fit to scale back and whittle down the funding appropriated for schools. So let me get this straight. AIG.....here's a check. A really BIG check. Schools....here's some money, but let's hold off before we do too much more because we're not sure an investment in education is "stimulating" enough.
Fine.
That would be my Exhibit A under the definition of "short sighted thinking."
If AIG fails, we will survive. The country will go on. If our schools continue to fail the millions of children each year who are dropping out, checking out, or doing just enough to get by but are otherwise functionally illiterate and virtually unemployable, then the looming human crisis will make the current capital crisis look tame by comparison. I am not an economist. I have not spent one day on Wall Street. But I think our first priority should be to invest in people. In children. And in the institutions that will dictate our future.
Of course, that's just me.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I'm just baying into the wind.
But I'm angry, folks.
Really angry.
Posts
5 comments:
I am really angry too. Congress needs to OVERSEE tax spending.
I'm angry with you, I can't believe the direction that we are heading with all of this "stimulus" money. Fail.
I want to know the names of these people who are receiving our tax dollars. A list should be published in ever paper in the country, right next to the list of deadbeat dads who don't take care of their kids.
I share your outrage. The bonuses paid out are unconscionable! I am ambivalent, however, about whether AIG should be allowed to fail. Here is why. I agree with you that it won't be the end of the world for us collectively, but if AIG fails, it will likely jeopardize the retirement accounts and pensions of many teachers, school employees and other public servants whose fund managers have invested heavily in the company's holdings. These people don't deserve to be punished in this way.
Chris, thank you for the comment. I agree with you which is why I initially supported, and still support to some degree, government intervention. But NOT so the very people who led us down this path to financial ruin can use our tax dollars to pay themselves bonuses. The reason I support intervention is so the many people who have placed their faith in an AIG, and companies like AIG, won't lose what it took a lifetime to earn. But the main point of the post is about the inherent hypocrisy here. AIG was given billions unconditionally while school funding was scaled back and whittled down. That, in my mind, may be a greater outrage than the bonuses.
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