AIG: 2 Questions should be asked…

There are two questions regarding AIG and these numerous failed corporations:

a) should the government have bailed them out and

b) what to do about those bonuses?

The first is simple. Just as we have separation of church and state, so should we have a separation between the federal government and the private sector. It’s astonishing to me that Republicans want less government, but want their corporate buddies bailed out!?! The Government has no business in the private sector. Let AIG, GM, etc. fail. If they cant run their own company; if GM didnt forsee needing to make an environmentally sound vehcile like a hybrid and cared more about quantity than quality; unlike the Germans and the Japanese, then so be it. If they were making great cars, that were affordable and perhaps didnt eat as much gas like a hybrid, we would have bought them. Pure and simple.

As for the second question, question “b”; what to do about those bonuses? That’s pure and simple too. If the government owns 80% of AIG, that is enough ownership to disallow the previous contracts which guaranteed those bonuses. Anyone in business knows that contracts are only as good as the paper they’re written on. So tax them at 90% ? Absolutely- I say tax them at 100%. Take the 170 Billion back and let them figure out how to pay out the $165 million to the 400 AIG current/former employees. If they/AIG feel the contract on bonuses must be honored; then let them do it, not the American taxpayer. Let the folks at AIG and on Wall Street feel what it’s like to be an average American for a change.

Leslie Marshall

The Leslie Marshall Show
“The Only True Democracy in Talk Radio – Of For And By The People”
www.lesliemarshallshow.com