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I waited to weigh in on the AIG situation because I wanted to wait for all of the facts to come out before I had an opinion. As much as I’m infuriated by the actions of AIG, I fear there is little we can do at the moment to turn anger and outrage into action.
AIG is a sad manifestation of all that is wrong with the corporate elite culture. A culture marked by greed, excess, and arrogance. The bubble several decades in the making has burst, and America is at a crossroads: we can return to a culture of rules and law, or fail to learn from the Great American Mistake, wait for the mob crowds to lose interest, and return to business as usual. AIG serves as the best example of what happens when the economic, cultural, and class gaps widens to the degree it has. America has over the past 25 years, and especially during the Bush administration, moved away from democracy, and is slowly transforming into an oligarchy. This case is more evident if we consider how the Bush administration has patently ignored the constitution and created arguably the largest expansion of executive power in American history.
Americans have every right to be angry. AIG has severely lessened, and in some cases, wiped out retirement savings. They wove the company into the fabric of the international economic community, becoming so inextricably intertwined, that their failure would have disastrous effects on the global economy – all based on a falsified assessment of corporate strength. And in the words of the villain’s in Scooby Doo, they “would have gotten away with it too” if the personal growth of wealth was commensurate with inflation and the rate of appreciation of home values.
Still, as angry as we are, the Democrats have to be very careful about how they exact retaliation. A 90% tax on the bonus money employees (and ex-employees) of AIG received is, by my account unconstitutional, when considering the Bill of Attainder article, or the ex post facto article that states we cannot punish an individuals, or group of individuals without a trial, or retroactively enforce laws, respectively.
The problem is the stimulus package as written, defended the bonuses of AIG executives. The verdict is still out on Senator Chris Dodd’s involvement in rewriting the part of the bill that allowed this AIG spectacle to transpire. Thus, we must find a workaround solution to get our money back that is constitutional, or Democrats will be no better than the republicans that flushed our constitution down the toilet these past eight years.
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I waited to weigh in on the AIG situation because I wanted to wait for all of the facts to come out before I had an opinion. As much as I’m infuriated by the actions of AIG, I fear there is little we can do at the moment to turn anger and outrage into action.
AIG is a sad manifestation of all that is wrong with the corporate elite culture. A culture marked by greed, excess, and arrogance. The bubble several decades in the making has burst, and America is at a crossroads: we can return to a culture of rules and law, or fail to learn from the Great American Mistake, wait for the mob crowds to lose interest, and return to business as usual. AIG serves as the best example of what happens when the economic, cultural, and class gaps widens to the degree it has. America has over the past 25 years, and especially during the Bush administration, moved away from democracy, and is slowly transforming into an oligarchy. This case is more evident if we consider how the Bush administration has patently ignored the constitution and created arguably the largest expansion of executive power in American history.
Americans have every right to be angry. AIG has severely lessened, and in some cases, wiped out retirement savings. They wove the company into the fabric of the international economic community, becoming so inextricably intertwined, that their failure would have disastrous effects on the global economy – all based on a falsified assessment of corporate strength. And in the words of the villain’s in Scooby Doo, they “would have gotten away with it too” if the personal growth of wealth was commensurate with inflation and the rate of appreciation of home values.
Still, as angry as we are, the Democrats have to be very careful about how they exact retaliation. A 90% tax on the bonus money employees (and ex-employees) of AIG received is, by my account unconstitutional, when considering the Bill of Attainder article, or the ex post facto article that states we cannot punish an individuals, or group of individuals without a trial, or retroactively enforce laws, respectively.
The problem is the stimulus package as written, defended the bonuses of AIG executives. The verdict is still out on Senator Chris Dodd’s involvement in rewriting the part of the bill that allowed this AIG spectacle to transpire. Thus, we must find a workaround solution to get our money back that is constitutional, or Democrats will be no better than the republicans that flushed our constitution down the toilet these past eight years.
