AIG Bonuses should not be taken away

So as we have heard, AIG continues to give out multi-million dollar bonuses to their executives even though the company has taking hundreds of billions of dollars from tax payers. This isn't fair, is it?

First, please understand, I don't think a single one of the executives at AIG deserve an extra penny for all the problems this company has caused this nation. They have probably been the largest culprit in this financial collapse. It was AIG's greed and lack of rules that caused so much of this mess. If it weren't for these greedy executives the economy might actually not be a disaster right now.

However with all this said, taking away bonuses that these executives were promised (in their contracts) to receive would be both illegal and unjust. They were employed by the shareholders of AIG and provided with contracts (although I'm not exactly sure of the details) that clearly stated they would be given these bonuses. Most likely the bonuses were based on some sort of incentive. It's hard to think of any incentive that they would have reached but they may simply have been based on hours worked, clients brought in, etc. This contract was issued before the whole bailout began.

Another Point. Most of these executives made mistakes, were too greedy, and took too many risks. However, these are the same executives appointed by the board of directors and/or CEO of AIG. They were the same executives that were believed to be the best qualified for the company's share holders. Greed gets the best of us. Just like it got to those of us who purchased houses that we had to foreclose on, bought stock that lost 50% of its value, didn't put enough money into an emergency (layoff) fund, or even bought a car that turned out to be a lemon. These are all risks we took. Were we all too risky? Should we not be allowed to foreclose on our homes or get out of the mortgage via a short sale because we took the risk? Absolutely not! When someone buys a house in the United States they do so knowing they have a mortgage to pay, and if they don't pay the mortgage they will lose the home due to foreclosure. On top of this, their credit rating will be negatively effected for 7-10 years. What if the government decided to end the practice of foreclosures and force all home owners to pay their mortgages off no matter how long it takes them (with plenty of added interest and late payments)? This would basicially tie all "greedy" home buyers to a lifetime of debt. This would be unfair, illegal, and unjust because it is not what the buyer understood at the time of his/her purchase.

So, let's provide these bonuses to the executives, but don't allow it to happen again in the future. With this bailout plan there should be strict new guidelines and limits for executive compensation. All future contracts that refer to bonus's should also have that fine little print that explains the incentives and bonuses may be withheld due to certain circumstances.... like this one.

Check out AIG Bailout Discussion, to see where all the billions of dollars in AIG bailout money went.

Go ahead and tell me how foolish I am now.