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Originally Posted by Jason1
Wow, I thought maybe this could finally be an issue everyone agrees on...nope. Giving out bonuses to these people is rediculous, and hopefully Obama will do everything in his power to stop it. (which he has said he will do)
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Jason, I agree with your moral outrage on this but in the end it is a tiny issue that is being exploited for political gain. The numbers we're talking about make up .097% of AIG's bailout money.
Whats a bigger issue to me is the government setting the precendant of being able to step in and dictate what people can and can't be paid after the fact by enacting retroactive taxes on a select individuals. The bottom line is that compensation is a matter between a company and the employee. Now that the government is part of the company they can have a say, but they can't start destroying contracts that are almost a year old and date well before the government became involved.
So so far the stimulus and bailout spending has achieved the following:
1) The government is dictate who and how businesses can operate on a micro level
2) They have begun to dictate who should be compensated and how much, though their investment and borderline intimidation
3) They're about to destroy 300 years of contract law by setting the precendent that any private contract can be busted up by the government at any time if they see fit. You can say that this is a special case, but when looking at the big picture (.097%), it really isn't. This is a power play, pure and simple.
Is anyone starting to get it yet? The more power the government assumes the less powers are afforded to it's people. Maybe you feel safe that this is only aimed at the rich, but precendents are being set, legal avenues are being constructed and we'll see this start creeping in elsewhere.
When the government "saves", they enslave.
And right now the government is talking about bailing out small businesses... hmm, I wonder how long it will take for our representatives to turn against them after the money is distributed, and start dictating what they can and can't do...