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It sure does sting. A staggering $165 million — for employees of a company that nearly took down the financial system. And heck, we, the taxpayers, own nearly 80 percent of A.I.G.
It doesn’t seem fair.
So here is a sobering thought: Maybe we have to swallow hard and pay up, partly for our own good. I can hear the howls already, so let me explain.
Ok, go ahead and explain the absolutely pathetic nonsense you are obviously about to spew.
“This isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents,” he said (President Obama). “It’s about our fundamental values.”
On that last issue, lawyers, Wall Street types and compensation consultants agree with the president. But from their point of view, the “fundamental value” in question here is the sanctity of contracts.
That may strike many people as a bit of convenient legalese, but maybe there is something to it. If you think this economy is a mess now, imagine what it would look like if the business community started to worry that the government would start abrogating contracts left and right.
That’s your cop out? A legal binding document that is negotiated between an employee and an employer? Some people just have the stupidity to go against the flow for no other reason than “it sure would sell me”. That’s all I can think of this douche’s argument. He continues with his shit…..
As much as we might want to void those A.I.G. pay contracts, Pearl Meyer, a compensation consultant at Steven Hall & Partners, says it would put American business on a worse slippery slope than it already is. Business agreements of other companies that have taken taxpayer money might fall into question. Even companies that have not turned to Washington might seize the opportunity to break inconvenient contracts.
Oh, I see. The bonds that the businesses have with their employees should not be renegotiated.
Well, Mr. AssHat, I can assure you that businesses renegoitate contracts with their employees all the time, required by the government or not. If an employee’s job performance hammer’s a company’s bottom line, I think that the it’s safe to say that the employee is thrown out of the door and his/her severence or bonuses come into question by the legal department of the company. So why can’t it happen for AIG, a public owned company?
And don’t give me that mumbo jumbo about these very executives untying the mess they have created. That’s utter bullshit. You are telling me that all these 100 or so employees are the only ones in the US who can undo the damage that AIG has done?
It’s time for the current owner (the American public) to act as owner would against bad employees, kick them out the door and sue them. Thousands have been sued before by corporations, why not these executives?
Desi In Toronto 