The Answer to Exorbitant Bonuses Given to Bailed-out Execs

Okay, so a few months ago, y'all will remember, the government started bailing out banks and corporations right and left. And then there was a bit of a stink when it was revealed that AIG, the hugest of all the companies being bailed out, was using our tax dollars to pay its executives these obscenely large bonuses.

My friend Nancy (not the nurse-practitioner, but the one who lives on Martha's Vineyard) is NOT a woman to just sit back and grumble when things like this happen. So, she wrote her senator, John Kerry (yes, I know...but that's a different post) to let him know just what she thought of that.

Many, many months later (this week, actually), Nancy received an email back from Senator Kerry's office basically telling her not to worry her pretty little head about it, because the government was taking care of everything (and yes, that is a paraphrase).

Another of my friends, Kim, didn't think the Senator's post was a sufficient response. Here's how Kim responded:

Well, one good way of preventing abuses like exorbitant bonuses when a company has received a bailout from the government would be... and, I'm just thinking out loud here... DON'T bail out companies!

This whole situation is due to a nation that has developed not only a detrimental sense of entitlement, but one that has morphed Uncle Sam into Daddy Sam. The government's job is not to bail out private individuals when they make mistakes (often knowingly), nor businesses either! Hell, the government can barely manage themselves for goodness sake! They are DEFINITELY not a good example of how a business should be run! Our government had already spent more money than they were going to receive this year by APRIL!!! The EARLIEST in history (usually we don't run out of money until August - which is sad enough!). It's like the blind leading the blind here, for goodness sake!

And, yes, I realize that without bailout funds this could lead to significant economic turmoil - but, seriously, without the threat of utter failure, what's going to keep these businesses in check in the future? In the back of their corporate minds has to be the knowledge that another bail out is possible - equating to riskier (including ridiculous bonuses) fiscal behavior. And, although I know this isn't popular, I think America IN GENERAL needs to feel the ramifications of their gluttonous spending.

There was a time when being an American meant working hard and reaping the rewards from that hard work. Today, we want the rewards up front - we'll work for them later. The abuse of credit is what led us into the Great Depression, apparently we didn't learn our lesson then and it needs to be re-taught. Why is everyone so surprised when history repeats itself?

America is fiscally hemorrhaging and all Congress (both sides of the aisles) wants to do is put a band-aid on it, so they can look like they're doing something about it and keep their seats. What we need is economic surgery - hell, we may even need amputation, if we really want to survive.


To which I responded, AMEN, SISTER! Anybody else have any thoughts on this?