A.I.G. Nonsense

I see my fellow Americans have gotten all hot and bothered by bonuses being paid to A.I.G. employees. This is somewhat annoying to me, because I'd much rather see people getting angry about A.I.G. itself. As crazy as it sounds, the employees most likely did exactly what they contracted with A.I.G. to do, up to, and including, getting the government to shell out a whole lot of money. They may not be good people, but we can handle individuals. Individuals can repent, and we can avoid them until they do.

What we can't handle is the continuation of the entity called A.I.G. To that end, it's the building with the letters A.I.G. on it that we should find far more offensive than whatever shmuck happened to be working there the day the debt/risk merry-go-round stopped. All of A.I.G.'s assets need to be put on the block and sold.

I think it's a problem of scale. It's hard to understand billions, the size and scope of an international company like A.I.G., but if you hear about a human getting bonus money- well you can emote to that, because it's something you can relate to. Unfortunately, taking away the bonuses won't remove the incentives to behave precisely the same way they did before- taking away the business, and therefore the job will. As long as the government is there to bail them out, they will always have the incentive to behave more recklessly than they should.