So, you may be wondering: why does a sixteen year old want to work for AIG? I mean, sure they're a successful bank, but don't I have more lofty ambitions in life?
Well, you see, if I worked for AIG, after a while, I'd be able to go and do whatever I want. All I need to do is to work for them, collect all those bonuses they're giving out, and TADA!!!!!!!!!, I'm rich.
That's probably what the AIG executives were thinking when they collected that bailout that the US government handed out to them recently. Why not take a perfect opportunity? The taxpayers won't miss the money will they? It's only 165 million dollars. What's the big deal?
First of all, it might not seem like much to them, but it's worth quite a bit to the average household. In addition, it's a principle they are breaking. There is a trust between them and the government representing all Americans in relation to this money. They have abused that trust, and now they should owe up to the consequences.
In times of such economic turmoil, you would think that they would do away with such over the top bonuses. They are just that: bonuses. They are not salaries that are owed to the employees. If AIG needs such huge loans because of their inability to steer themselves clear of bankruptcy, perhaps they should consider why they ended up with this problem. Using bailout money they were desperate to obtain to pay hefty bonuses to a select group of executives does not sound like a proper strategy to deal with this problem.
Obama is furious about this. Good, now let's see what he does. Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers If you liked this post, please vote for my blog at Canadian Blogosphere
You can't just look at it from a moral perspective. Sure, the executives working at AIG are wrong for taking the money when it could be put to much better use fixing the company, not to mention that it's taxpayer money. But the fault can't be put entirely on AIG and the current management, specifically the current CEO in place, who did not have anything to do with handing out the lucrative conracts to set the record straight. After all, they have a contractual obligation to pay out these bonuses for prior and current work. You can't just simply rip up their contracts and deem them irrelevant just because the Obama administration deemed it necessary to use public funds to support such a large corporation. If all of the decisions made in business were justified morally, then business as we know it would pretty much be over. AIG owed some of its employees money that they had a right to claiming (even if they did not deserve it), no different from any other of the loans that AIG had to repay. Obama can talk about change as much as he wants, but a lot of life right now is still set in stone based on practices from the past.
ReplyDeleteIn times of such economic turmoil, you would think that they would do away with such over the top bonuses. They are just that: bonuses. They are not salaries that are owed to the employees. If AIG needs such huge loans because of their inability to steer themselves clear of bankruptcy, perhaps they should consider why they ended up with this problem. Using bailout money they were desperate to obtain to pay hefty bonuses to a select group of executives does not sound like a proper strategy to deal with this problem.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, if these practices from the past you are talking about are requiring payments of such bonuses, then they should be done away with, shouldn't they? Wouldn't that be positive change?
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