I can’t help myself. AIG is still in the news and I still want to rant about it. So the AIG leader says that without market competitive bonuses he can’t keep the top talent required to run the company through these rocky times. I say “good, you don’t deserve them.” Let’s not forget that when times were good these guys ruined everything. What makes you think they’re the ones to lead us through the bad times?
Now Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are talking about bonuses too. You can bet they’ll trot out the same old rationale. It’s a safer bet than a mortgage backed security. To that I say “tough”.
(Note: my employer is not being bailed out and did not pay bonuses this year. Maybe we should have applied for some of that bailout money so we could have gotten bonuses.)
Here’s how I see it: bailout equals bankruptcy. Once you’re bankrupt you lose your business even if it keeps running. You have to have a judge’s OK to blow your nose. Your employee unions get broken. Your management gets forced wage cuts. Your pension goes away and million dollar bonuses evaporate. Why? Why is bankruptcy so tough on the employees? Simple: you screwed it up, you’re lucky to stay in business, and this has to be really unpleasant, otherwise you’ll just screw it up again. A bailout should work the same way. Rather than a nice cushy safety net, it has to be so awful that these morons won’t do it again.
Today, the US House of Representatives passed a bill taxing these AIG bonuses at 90%. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and is really transparent. But if you can establish a practice that says “when you’re bankrupt and/or being bailed out, it will be so awful that you won’t do it again” then we might be on the right track. Not getting huge bonuses gets you started down that road real quick.
Sound too harsh? Maybe but let’s break it down. Suppose you get a new puppy. Every time the puppy has an ‘accident’ in the house you give it a treat. When do you think the puppy will stop crapping on the living room rug? Well, how about when you start rubbing his nose in it instead of giving him Milk Bones. It’s amazing how often things can be solved with the simple notion that it’s just like training a dog.
I get it that bad things happen to good people and these poor AIG executives are just trying to make a living. But… Am I supposed to feel bad for these guys not getting a bonus? Do they feel bad for me not getting one? Do they feel bad for all the people that have lost their homes or jobs? I reckon there are at least 73 unemployed Americans who deserve the million dollars more than the idiots so central to the condition of those Americans being unemployed in the first place. Or we could use the $165 million to fund a few new homeless shelters – we certainly need more of them now thanks to those goofballs.
More importantly, we need to rub these AIG noses in their own shit a few times and if it starts with no million dollar bonuses then so be it. And if they can find someone who will let them keep soiling the carpet then so be that too. But as long as it’s my carpet – which it is – I’d like to start rubbing a few noses (and not in an Eskimo kissing sort of way.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
And why you aren't the advisor to the White House is still a mystery to me. You are talking plain sense.
The name 'goofball' just doesn't do it for me though. Idiots, morons, greedy bast@#!s, irresponsible pigs, and a whole slew of other endearments I'm sure you could have come up with. Yes - perhaps if they lived in the house with the pile of doggie poo they allowed to accumulate - that would have reminded them of all the shit they created. Instead, they got paid enough to have all the crap shoveled out into someone else's house far, far away so they could neither see it, step in it, smell it, or even remember it existed. When you have to live in the messes you created - on a daily basis - it does tend to make you want to tidy up.
Please keep up the sane blogs - and if we are lucky - maybe we can get Obama to take a peek and learn something.
Post a Comment