AIG Bailout Money Bonuses Signal Continued Corruption in Financial Sector.

Surely the term bailout money bonuses is an improbable oxymoron, right?

Bailout money refers to the inconceivably large sums of purely-invented cash that has been handed over to the failing financial sector and automakers by the American Government on behalf of the American taxpayers.

Bonuses, when used in normal terms, refers to the bountiful rewarding of exceptional performance that is bestowed upon someone who has far exceeded expectations by making the company experience unmistakable success.

It therefore seems logical that never the twain shall meet. Yet AIG announced that even after receiving billions in bailout money, they would be dishing out bailout money bonuses as usual.

AIG received over $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money. In March 2009 they announced that they had given nearly $1.7 million to AIG employees as bonuses.

This sparked public outrage and prompted Congress to pass a measure taxing 90% of the bonus pay received by families who earn $250,000 or more per year.

Still, those who received bonuses cried foul by complaining that they had either already spent the bonus money, and therefore could not afford the tax, or by stating that with such a tax measure, they no longer have incentive to work once they’ve hit the $250,000 income mark for the year.

Bailout Money Bonuses Condone Corruption

The AIG bailout money bonuses feel like a bad, impossible dream. It’s impossible to feel empathy for their lame reasons to oppose the 90% tax on their bonuses.

As mentioned earlier, bonuses are a reward for a job well done. If your job performance causes the company to tank, you have not done a good job.

The fact that they can’t understand this simple logic shows how blind and greed-driven these people have become, expecting to continue their corrupt practices and fund their lavish lifestyles at the taxpayers’ expense.

This is evidence of the financial sector’s real reluctance to change their business practices. The billions of dollars of bailout money they’ve already received is like trying to hold back a bursting dam with a cork.

Loophole in Legislation

Many people wonder how on earth AIG managed to legitimize the giving of bonuses after the bailout.

An investigation reveals that it was Senator Christopher Dodd who added a loophole to the legislation which allowed them to hand out bonuses.

Senator Chris Dodd was the recipient of $160,000 from AIG employees in early 2007.

AIG encouraged employees to donate to the senator because he was on the verge of becoming chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and would therefore hold great influence over policies affecting the insurance industry.

This clearly shows the susceptibility of America’s politicians to favor corporate interests and political gain at public expense.

Changes Nothing

There is no accountability on Wall Street. The people who work for firms like AIG are the ones that caused the economic crisis that has brought the entire world to its knees.

Yet they unfathomably refuse to take responsibility and clean up their act.

Because the government showered them with bailout money, they have very little incentive to perform or reform.

They feel that they are so important to the economy that the government will not let them collapse; therefore they can plod along as normal with corruption and greed.

In the real world, if someone screws up at their job so massively that the company fails, they will lose their job – not be rewarded with bonuses.

AIG operates in an absurd fantasy bubble without regard for the financial pain they have caused their shareholders.