Suits

I turned off the tv this morning in utter disgust while watching the AIG executives testify on Capitol Hill in disbelief that these people are part of a group with the incomprehensible audacity to receive a bonus from a company who has borrowed $176 billion in bailout money from every single one of us, with room to tap into another $30 billion of TARP bailout money if "needed".

AIG CEO Ed Liddy came into the AIG chaosphere in September, with his first fuck-up coming not a month after in October by defending a $440,000 company soirée at a luxury resort in California. Keep in mind- this came very shortly after the bigwigs begged and pleaded to congress for a part of the first proposed bailout, of which they received approximately $84 billion in loans from. Granted, the nearly-half-million-dollar ordeal comes out to be a microscopic percentage, but the fact that they have the audacity to not put every dime possible towards correcting their infinite mistakes, ill-advised investments, and their permanently disfigured image should warrant every single one of them to be fired. The problem is, as much as we'd all love to tell them to go fuck themselves and let the company collapse, firms like AIG have spread their seed so damn far, wide, and deep into not only the American economy, but found a clever way to fuck people in about 130 other countries outside the US, and because of how deep their roots are, their collapse would mean inevitable collapse of the bigger picture. And now that this "I can't believe it's not insurance" has finally come to light, everyone's passing the buck, as per the ways of the failing/failed American businessman. I couldn't care less that Liddy's working basically for nothing, sitting on a $1.00 salary with no stock options. This should be the case for the heads of every company who requested bailout money. This isn't saying Liddy would get my pat on the back- it just means I'd take a swing or two less at him if I had the chance.

Which brings us to the new atrocity in the company. AIG just paid out bonuses totaling approximately $165 million dollars to their employees under the "contractual obligation" that these were retention bonuses, not performance bonuses, of which they've paid none since the collapse of the firm. Even better is the fact that 73 of these employees had bonuses of $1 million plus. Liddy's arguing that AIG was contractually obligated to pay these according to the previously drafted contracts, as well as an "agreement" that was drawn up in late 2007 saying that these bonuses are to be paid. The defense beyond these previously-drafted documents? "We would have had to pay out at least double had we not paid them now." FUCK. YOU. Your firm got it's fucking bailout money and has since began the process of correcting your faults, bringing your fuck-up from $2.7 trillion down to $1.6 trillion over the past year, which is all well and great, but does that mean that since you got caught, you should just be given the chance to correct it, with the other 300some million Americans footing the bill? Why shouldn't your company be treated like an American citizen, who's held responsible for paying every dime of their loan plus the accrued interest back to their lender?

During the hearing, Liddy told the panel that he, as of this morning, "asked the employees who received these bonuses to return at least half if their bonuses exceeded $100,000" and "all of their bonus" if they were in a specific sector of the company. I immediately burst into laughter over the idea that people in this company who's done what it's done would just simply hand back hundreds of thousands of dollars that they're apparently contractually obligated to earn.

I'm not just faulting Liddy and AIG for this shit- I'm taking the buck straight to Obama and his administration. Rightfully so, Obama spoke today, saying that the buck stops with him, which is as true as the sky is blue. It's appalling that there wasn't at least one stipulation in the "bailout" legislation that stated clearly and unmistakably that if a company is in need of government assistance to prevent its collapse that not a SINGLE CENT of bonus money, performance or otherwise, should be paid to any member or employee of the company, regardless of contractual obligations or previously-established guidelines. It's pretty fucking common sense as to what the definition of a "bonus" is when it comes to the job market, and not a single person in these failing companies, banks, firms and whatever else should receive an inkling of one.

AIG, along with how many other companies and banks, caused this financial collapse that's entering its second year, causing more and more people to have to drastically cut back their established lifestyles and in the case of millions of Americans, my father included, costing them their jobs. Simply put:

AIG,
A company that my recently-unemployed father,
By default,
Had his tax money go into in order to bail them out of a problem they caused by their own greed, idiocy and negligence,
Handed over a check to one of their employees for $100,000 who,
By all rational assumptions was involved and knowing of these dealings,
Which is,
Give or take,
What my father would have made this year,
Had the economy not collapsed,
Forcing countless layoffs,
Because major companies like AIG were greedy, negligent, and took complete advantage of everyone they could.

Fuck you, AIG, and every greedy, immoral, dishonest firm, company or whatever that's helped cause the financial collapse and the recession/depression we're in.

Fuck you, Chris Dodd for "adding language into the rescue bill" that allowed for these bonuses to be paid, and for being the sad excuse for a politician you are.

Fuck you, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents of Congress, for allowing these bigwigs to continue to be GROSSLY overpaid while we hand them billions of dollars, plunging us deeper into debt.

And, pertaining to this issue, fuck you, Barack Obama, and your entire financial and economic team, for not exercising your ability and, even more so, your obligation to do what's in the best interest of the country as a nation and its citizens as your constituents.

And to the people threatening these CEOs and their families and want to "hang them all with piano wire", fuck you too. They deserve to be sued for everything including the kitchen sink then sent to jail for quite a while, not fucking killed. Your ignorance and idiocy isn't any different from theirs.

We're ever so slowly getting the idea of owning up to our mistakes and taking the blame if we're in the wrong, but it shouldn't be a fucking process like learning to read or figuring out all the idiosyncrasies of how to get a girl off just the right way. You can only dodge bullets for so long before you get one right between the eyes.

Man up and take the blame you deserve.
End of fucking discussion.