Contractual obligations, my balls. So when the auto companies need $25 billion, that’s unacceptable because they won’t throw their unionized workers under the bus, but when AIG needs $170 billion, they MUST pay out huge bonuses to the very people who ran the company in the ground because of “contractual obligations?”
Burn it down. Let it die. That $170B will cover unemployment benefits for the innocents caught in the crossfire and the actual insurance part of the business can be spun off and sold to Lloyds or Swiss Re or the Willis Group or something, and just to cap it off, we’ll change the logo on Man U’s shirt from “AIG” to “I’M A PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESS.”
There exists in this country and in this economy a class of scum, of unbearable douchebags who view the Whiffle Life as their divine right, who are so convinced of themselves as the engine of civilization that they threaten to drop out and bring us all to our knees for want of their unique gifts. They are full of shit. Their bluster is to cover their panic, because they realize two things: one, they are helpless without the indulgence of their “inferiors,” and two, in the words of Chris Rock, “ain’t NOBODY above an ass-whuppin’.”
The mighty Randian masters of the universe are dangling by the cliff from their fingertips. It is our duty as a society, as a civilization, as decent human beings, to tie on the steel-toed boots and stomp. Hard.
Amen.
Well said.
I do agree with the notion that some things (e.g. gigantic banks) are institutions whose failure would damage the world economy in ways far more severe than the lasting effect of incurring bailout debt. However, I don’t think AIG counts for that. AIG is the prize winner of the “second mouse gets the cheese” sweepstakes, i.e. in that they weren’t Lehman Brothers. People got scared when Lehman failed and AIG threatened it, and then once the money started flowing… no one has the stones to say that enough is enough with those guys.
This period of economic soul-searching is about determining which firms should fail and which ones should survive, not pumping endless cash into everything after getting scared at the first failure. Weed out the decent bits, sell them off to recoup as much as possible (and to keep the viable parts going), and burn down what remains. To the ground.