RSS
Facebook
Twitter
E-PrinceReader Comments
Alumni at AIG defend company amid public outrage
Published: Friday, March 27th, 2009
University alumni employed by the American International Group (AIG) found themselves in a political and media firestorm last week when the company was thrust into the national spotlight. The company revealed that it had paid $165 million in bonuses to ...
(back to the article)
The opinions expressed here are those of the individual commenters and do not necessarily represent the views of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. We do not take responsibility for the opinions, facts, or claims presented by individual commenters, and reserve the right to moderate or delete inappropriate comments.
If you are outraged about the bonuses, you should be approximately 1000x as outraged about the counterparty bailouts. Both the execs and the counterparties profited from risky behavior, privatized the risk and socialized the costs. If this does not describe your emotional state, you are probably suffering from an anthropic bias, trying to find a human-like bad guy to blame rather than reasoning from actual ethical principles. (As much fun as it is to hate on big corporations that aren't Apple, Starbucks, or Google, it just ain't the same.)
Was von Lockner '99 offered a position with AIG?
I meant "von Lockner '09"
The Princeton grad in the 6th paragraph should be called an "alumna," not an "alumnus," since she's female.
Although I didn't like the fact bonuses were paid by a failing company I think taxing at 90% the bonuses already paid is an ex-post facto law. I think that much of the rank and file employees are being blamed for what was happening in London. Although I think the government should wind down AIG I feel sorry for the employees who are going to be fired and will have a hard time finding a job as a former AIG employee.
von lockner '09 was offered a position with the DTF swat team
"good job. your company almost tanked. the government had to bail you
out. heres a nice, big, fat, whopping BONUS!"
since when do ordinary workers get a bonus for misfeasance? wtf?
I just never understood why bonuses were being given out this year in the first place. My understanding is that a bonus is something extra that may be earned if one contributes to the company's success above and beyond expectations. But considering that this was not exactly a banner year for AIG, why would the company even entertain the possibility of awarding bonuses... I thought capitalism was about rewarding profit-earning, not rewarding driving a company to the brink of disaster.
"Douchebag" does seem like an appropriate choice of word when an AIG employee from NY chooses to publicaly state that people from Kansas, Scranton and other such areas are incapable of understanding this elementary issue.