AIG Bonuses Returned by Employees

After the recent outrage all over the news about bonuses being dolled out like air at AIG there is finally some common sense coming into the subject at hand. Many of the folks working at AIG are returning the massive bonuses and to them I say thank you.

When it comes right down to it, there isn’t a law in the land that could tax them out of it, force them to decline the bonuses, or Constitutionally take the bonuses away from them. It took some pressure by the media and all of us little bloggers to force the issue on Washington and embarrass the President in doing so but it needed to be made right. And the ones making it right are doing it willingly and they work at AIG. Over at the New York Times they have this to say on it…

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group were giving back their bonuses.

He also said 15 of the largest 20 bonus recipients in A.I.G.’s financial products division had agreed to give back the money, for a total that he estimated at about $30 million. “Those bonuses will be returned in full,” Mr. Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters.

The attorney general noted that about 47 percent of $165 million in retention bonuses was awarded to Americans, accounting for nearly $80 million. All told, Mr. Cuomo said, A.I.G. employees have agreed to return about $50 million in bonuses. - New York Times

I have to say that the folks at AIG that gave the money back deserve a pat on the back but I’m sure they already know that. Doing what is right makes sense even if you worked your ass off to earn the bonuses. It’s fair to say that not everyone at AIG was a corrupt idiot out to make a fast buck but the public perception is what it is. All it takes is a few bad apples and the pie tastes like crap.

As far as the rest of the public showmanship in Washington goes, it needs to continue to reign in the rest of corporate America that thinks they can take part in their own little corporate crusade and think that it will not have dire circumstances down the road. Washington will never tax one business to the extent they were going to tax the AIG bonuses because the big money political machines will never buy it. Do you think for a minute that the executives at Exxon, GE, Dupont, and the like would stand still while the door was pushed wide open on taxing their future personal profits and gains? Not likely.

Thank you Memeorandum for the tip…

Papamoka

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