AIG to pay millions in bonuses this week after bailout
First read the article. AIG is paying out millions in bonuses starting this week after receiving a government bailout to save the company from failure.
So the company is going to reward people for failure and they have to ensure they keep the same talented people around to ran the company in the ground in the first place. Unbelieveable. If you want to tell AIG what you think of this plan, here's the contact link.
The problem with not paying bonuses is that these are often contractually obligated. A target is specified, and if it's reached, the man (or should I say The Man) gets his bonus. It's the law. Contracts would have to be restructured, at which point the board of directors, the stockholders, the SEC, the IRS, and any industry regulators ALL have to get involved. NOT paying the bonuses will cost about the same as paying them! If not more.
As shocked as I am to say this, Congress has come up with the simplest, most elegant solution imaginable: effective yesterday (3/19), bonuses given to execs in bailout companies will be taxed at 90%. The bigger the bonus a company gives, the more goes straight back into OUR pockets.
So AIG, howzabout some BIGGER bonuses? There's a stretch of federal highway near here that could use some work.
I explained to them that their employees and executives already have received a bonus. THEY HAVE JOBS! Well, that's no ALL I said, but that was part of it. With so many people out of work just having a job and benefits is all the bonus anyone should need.
What's especially galling is rewarding failure. They don't need to keep these people around if they ran the company to the brink of failure. They need new blood in there or they just need to go away.
After reading this Walter, I followed the link and voiced my disbelief that they could do such a thing and said that I would never buy a policy underwritten by AIG because of this.
Professional Video Editor, Producer, Director since 1990.
Credits include multiple Emmys, Tellys, Aurora and CableAce Awards.
Owner / Operator of Biscardi Creative Media, a full service video and film production company with about 65% of our work in HDTV. The show you know us best for is "Good Eats" on the Food Network. I developed the HD Post workflow and we also create all the animations for the series.
Favorite pastime is cooking with pizza on the grill one of my specialties. Each Christmas Eve we serve the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a traditional Italian seafood meal with approx. 30 items on the menu.
If I wasn't in video production I would either own a restaurant or a movie theater.
