The whole AIG bonus debacle is not interesting to me, but apparently many people are greatly concerned and, of course, furious. Here is my take:
(1)If the government starts to renegade private contracts willy-nilly, it sets a very bad precedence. The Obama administration is already trying to extend the reach of the government to every possible corner of the society. It is only a tiny bit of the bailout money, but serves the purpose of the administration perfectly well. Who knows what the end is? You could only hope the hands of the government stop before your house, career, and life.
(2)While I don't like these stupid people taking huge bonuses at a time the public is not happy about the way Wall Street deals with the situation, I would have pocketed in the money at the drop of a hat, if I had gotten a bonus package like that. It has nothing to do with moral standard or anything. Just like PBS. I don't like the government spending anything on a public TV franchise, but that won't stop me from taping Sesame Street for my kid. In a way, I am like a speculator in the financial market. The very presence of speculators brings the market back to fundamentals much faster. In the PBS case, the more popular their programs are, the more rediculous PBS look, because people would have paid for the high quality programs like Sesame Street!
(Picture: Associated Press)
