Aig Bonuses

[Winchester]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1823058' date='Apr 2 2009, 09:49 PM']Something about canopies of ch[font="Arial"]ees[/font]e and sauerkraut fabric . . .[/quote]
It's highly symbolic.

[Socrates]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1821811' date='Apr 1 2009, 10:37 AM']AIG was required by previously signed contracts to give the bonuses.

when the CEO was being grilled by Congress about them, guess what their advice to him was? You should have broken the law. They pretty much explicitly stated that, they said AIG should have simply ignored its contractual obligations. To me, that is unbelievable.

This is a nation of LAWS. This entire populist attack on the bonuses at AIG is lawlessness, pure and simple. The United States Congress is saying "don't follow the law, follow the mob". Un-freakin-believable.

I personally don't think the government should've given AIG all that money. But honestly, when it did give them that money, AIG went "oh, good, now we can afford to keep our contractual obligations" and then Congress got mad. Ridiculous.[/quote]
Exactly.
The federal government having the power to simply break its contracts and retroactively tax people as it sees fit amounts to tyrannical dictatorship, rather than rule of law.
It's a very scary precedent, whatever one may think of the initial bailout.

[Winchester]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1823123' date='Apr 2 2009, 10:45 PM']Exactly.
The federal government having the power to simply break its contracts and retroactively tax people as it sees fit amounts to tyrannical dictatorship, rather than rule of law.
It's a very scary precedent, whatever one may think of the initial bailout.[/quote]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Edited by moderator:[/b] Personal Attack. --notardillacid[/color]

Sorry.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Winchester

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Winchester' post='1823088' date='Apr 2 2009, 10:19 PM']It's highly symbolic.[/quote]

Hmmm... I probably shouldn't try and read into that too much. Yikes.

[Deb]

If I could have a 10 million dollar bonus, I would let the government have 90%. Really, I wouldn't mind at all. I would be happy to pay that 90%. No one will give me a 10 million dollar bonus though. I would also like a bailout cuz my garage sales are failing.

I am not following politics cuz I don't live in a democracy anymore and what I was taught about capitalism does not seem to apply any more and it just confuses me to pay attention to what appears to be the beginning of the reign of Stalin, Part II.

I am actually mostly liberal too and I want to run screaming from the country.

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Deb' post='1827186' date='Apr 6 2009, 11:43 PM']If I could have a 10 million dollar bonus, I would let the government have 90%.[/quote]

Well sure. And I was making $5 a month, $100 a month minus 90% would sound great. Never mind the 90% is being stolen by the Federal State. Pirates and emporers, as the saying goes.

But the thing that gets overlooked is, these people gave up their normal saleries, or a large portion of them, counting on the bonuses to be there -- only to have the State arbitrarily take them. And local taxes will seize the final 10%.

Stalin would be pleased, eh?

[Winchester]

[quote name='Deb' post='1827186' date='Apr 6 2009, 11:43 PM']I am actually mostly liberal too and I want to run screaming from the country.[/quote]
What do you mean when you say mostly liberal?

[dominicaninmyheart2]

I go back and forth on this question. When these people signed their employment contracts, they did it under the impression that these bonuses would be paid if they achieved certain goals/milestones for the company. The question that I wrestle with is, once AIG accepted government bailout money and then asked for bailout money a second time, did those employment contracts technicially become null and void because of AIG's financial situation and has AIG technicially become a government owned entity thus making those contacts null and void now (if they weren't before)? If none of the above applies, then I think in these times when their are people in the United States and around the world who have little more than a cardboard box as a result of the financial crisis, give the bonus to charity if you don't want to or can't for some reason give it back. The world needs to get back to the basics, we've become societies of excess in certain parts of the world.