About this AIG mess from today's Gawker comments:
"I'm sure there are individual bankers who did their job, did it well, and probably deserve some extra compensation. But the notion that these bonuses are somehow promised compensation is absurd. Every employer I've ever worked for that offered bonuses took great pain to specify that bonuses are just that - an add-on to your salary. They've also taken great pains to specify that the terms of the bonus can change almost without notice.
I don't begrudge (some) people in the financial services industry their money; they do a job that, in many cases, I don't understand or comprehend. But the notion that hundreds of millions of dollars are required to retain "top talent" - in many cases, talent that oversaw the actions that got us into this damn mess to begin with - is absolutely absurd, and not in keeping with, you know, the overwhelming majority of Americans. Regardless your level of employment, if you work for a firm that was required to take bailout cash to continue functioning as an organization, I'd say that pride in your organization is misplaced (regardless of what area you work in). I work in support operations, and if our marketing group does an awful job conceptualizing or releasing a product, the product is a failure regardless of whether the support operations are solid or not.
In short, fuck them."
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I think long-standing traditions in financial sector compensation packages created a mind-set of entitlement, which allowed these jackasses to think it appropriate to award and accept huge bonuses in the current climate. At least in the recent past, people in finance commonly accept jobs with a relatively low salary, because it is expected that their bonuses amass a large part of their take-home pay... this expectation is also set by employers, so people start to view it as a given part of their compensation package and live a lifestyle accordingly. The only question in their mind is not IF they'll get a bonus, it's how huge will the next bonus be?
So I can sort of understand how/why this unfolded in such a way from a psychological standpoint: they felt entitled because a "bonus" doesn't really mean "extra" to these people. And as a capitalist, I generally don't care how much they make in bonus.
HOWEVER... when your company has been saved from collapse by taxpayer money, it is time to pull your head out of your ass and realize that you're lucky to have a J-O-B, because a lot of the folks who are subsidizing your measely, bonus-less salary are struggling to buy groceries and pay their effing light bill.
So I say "fuck them," too.
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