Take back what is ours!

Have any of you read what has come out of the AIG Congressional hearings?  Well if you haven't, the basic jist of it is that a week after AIG received $85 BILLION from you, me, and the rest of the citizenry of this country, the executives decided to treat themselves to a vacation.  A vacation that cost $400,000+. 

From Speaker.gov, here's Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on the AIG manicure, etc., expenditures:

Have you heard of anything more outrageous - a week after taxpayers commit $85 billion dollars to rescue AIG, the company's leading insurance executives spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at one of the most exclusive reports in the nation...Let me describe for some of you the charges that the shareholders, taxpayers, had to pay. AIG spent $200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon. They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don't know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?

As far as I'm concerned, these people have embezzeled money and should be punished.  They should be stripped of all their wealth and that wealth should be redistributed to the people.  The deserve to lose everything they have and live the remainder of their lives penniless, jobless, and reviled. 

You know, the French had this problem once, and a particular innovation during the enlightenment in humane termination of life helped them solve this kind of bullshit. 

Comments

[craig]

Pardon my french, but that is F#(K'D UP! I hope something does happen because of this.

Your company is going down the drain: $85 billion

The nation is in the crapper: $700 billion

You and your executives take a tax-payer paid vacation: Only In America, so sad

[Dorothee]

Aren't the french the best?

[Arthur (AmeriNZ)]

I'm so with you on this, Adam. While Lehman Brothers was seeking a taxpayer bailout, they spent millions on executive BONUSES (!) for fired executives! The failed CEO of Lehman, Richard S. Fuld Jr., was paid about $350 MILLION between 2000 and 2007 as he led the company to disaster, yet he told Congress that amount was "appropriate". I guess failure and incompetence (and criminality?) is hard work.

Who do these crooks think they are? More importantly, how stupid do they think WE are? There isn't a CEO in the world who's worth that kind of money. If America were perfect, if there was healthcare for all, if no ordinary person faced losing their jobs or their homes to pay for these extortionate "salaries", then MAYBE we could let it slide. As things are, that French invention is a great idea. Hey—maybe that's the real reason the republicans stirred up all that anti-French hatred awhile back!

[Evil European]

Socialism for the rich, free-market dog eat dog for the everyone else, everyone else being the ones who actually do anything worth while in this society.

[Gavin]

I agree whole-heartedly. Why weren't the institutional investors reigning this in? Pay for performance.

They should be sued and brought up on charges for neglecting their fiduciary responsibilities.

[homer]

These are the people John McCain wants to give tax cuts too.

[Sunshine]

That is disgraceful. I think the bail outs should have claw back provisions built into them - if they mis-spent the funds, the Government can demand the package back.

[Jimmi]

Let them rot with the Enron shitheads. Its people like this that make us have to follow the Sarbanes-Oxley guidelines, making our work environment more difficult, while they keep steeling. I think its time to look at real estate in Canada.

[tornwordo]

It is so obscene. I could retire for well under a million right now. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

[Tim]

The French than spent the next hundred years trying to recover from that stint too.

I think the executives should simple be held accountable as government employees and if they mis-spent government funds they should be charged as a crime. Redistributing wealth without charges always ends badly and typically in mob rule and mass executions. It's easy to get caught up in the hysteria of the moment but all that would end up doing is giving the government precedent to take your money as well. In truth the richest 1% pay almost 30% of all taxes while 91 million (roughly one third) pay no taxes or receive tax money back.
You work in research, would you be able to fund all that work on your own? no you need capital and investors and people hoping to get rich off of your work. The schools have their endowments and that money is invested and worked by people like those at AIG. in good times they are lauded in bad times they are pilloried. Yes they are greedy but making their greed work for you is a lot better than trying to get everyone to follow some sort of cultic morality.

[Alexander]

"And the Band Played On" Mk2. Le sigh.

[Lee-Sean]

I agree. This is outrageous. This is why there needs to be more oversight in this bailout or recovery or whatever they are spinning it as these days. It's time to consider executive wage caps and full disclosure of every taxpayer's income. The Scandinavians do it, and it seems to me like a good way to create transparency and an encourage a more egalitarian society.

[Michael]

I totally agree with you Adam. If you haven't heard the latest waves, AIG is asking for another $38 billion from the government and is planning another retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. THat is close to you....maybe you could crash the party.

Peace!

[Tim]

hmm income transparency, that seems interesting and doable.

[The Cubicle's Backporch]

Oh- you mean it doesn't make sense for these assheads to be getting pedicures while the poor people pay to revive their company?! I read that their excuse was that the trip had been planned for a year. SO CANCEL IT you freakin' idiots!!