Response to AIG Bonuses Have You Pointing the Finger in the Wrong Direction
The core problem is we have a bunch of corrupt bureaucrats that are looting companies like 3rd world dictators. For some reason people seem to think if you and your buddies conspire to loot millions it is legal and if you and your buddies conspire to take the office supplies that is stealing.
I fully understand that these people looting millions conspire with attorneys to try and make the looting appear legal (and can afford to pay the lawyers well to make such a case). My guess is you could easily get lawyers to make your looting of a few thousand dollars worth of office supplies legal if you pay them enough and can bribe others to show why your looting is beneficial. The problem is if you are only looting thousands you can't cut the lawyers in on the game and still walk away with something, you need to loot millions to have enough to buy your castle and bride lots of others so they go along with your looting.
What has people so upset is that people that obviously did about as bad a job as humanly possible are supposedly entitled to millions for creating billions in harm. Anyone with sense realizes something is very wrong with such a situation. And as they learn more they become more and more amazed at the brazen corruption within companies that are now being paid by their taxes. It is exactly the same thing people feel if some corrupt dictator steals.
They also get angry as talking heads try and make it appear that the corrupt looters are capitalists. Trying to say to people that if you don't support corrupt looters you are against capitalism makes people upset. You are against the friends of the talking heads (their corrupt cronies) if you don't support looting of companies, you do support capitalism.
People really get upset if they bought the talking heads excuses for their golf buddies ludicrous looting and now see exactly what these talking heads have been telling them for years. People don't want to admit they have been fooled into believing that they should be happy about corrupt looters that drove a Rolls Royce and angry with welfare Moms that were lazy. It gets pretty hard to accept that these imbeciles are the people that are suppose to be paid millions because they "deserve" it. Other than having a "high class" of buddies so when they loot they do so with the full knowledge of the talking heads friends what do they offer?
Eventually the evidence that the talking heads are just supporting the looting their friends have been doing for decades while you sat there and accepted their idiotic rantings gets to people. Well you really should be angry. And you should be angry that you accepted such notions for years. But it is easy to redirect that to the imbeciles that behaved so corruptly that you can't avoid the fact that you sat by as the looters and their friends looted and now your economy is in deep trouble. The buddies of the talking heads have behaved so poorly it isn't possible to accept the excuses of the talking heads any longer.
How many people will actually change based on their new understanding? Very few, is my guess. They will try and pretend like all the looters are just exceptions. They are not. The system itself is corrupt. The looters are taking what they don't earn. They are leaving behind ruins. They are convinced that they deserve their loot, just as a dictator is convinced they do.
The huge problems created by greedy fools at AIG are only a portion of the problem. Their buddies at the other financial companies are just as corrupt. And the bonuses paid 2 years ago are just as much looting as those people are mad about today. The problem is much deeper than the looters. The problem is a society that has so lost the understanding of honorable behavior and ethical standards that they think it is ok for people to loot. And while people are mad now, I don't see any evidence people have decided to stop accepting the looting preformed by brooks brother bureaucrats.
Related: Looting: Bankruptcy for Profit - Why Pay Taxes or be Honest
