Retention Payment? What….

Wouldn’t things just be perfect, if you could receive one million dollars for helping to engineer the downfall of one of the world’s largest insurance giants? Well guess what? 73 people were lucky enough for this to happen. Oh, and there is one little catch though, you’re paying for it. That’s right, your taxpayer dollars are being used to reward the people that aided in the world financial meltdown. Angry yet?

This is just the beginning. AIG, a giant insurance company, in New York (yes, Wall Street…), has been exposed for using millions of taxpayer dollars, from the TARP fund, to give out retention payments (A.K.A. bonuses), to some of the least performing people in their employment. 73 executives, from the companies Financial Services Unit, the unit that helped fling AIG off of the cliff, have received one million dollars or more in these so-called retention payments. Seven of these executives received over four million dollars, while one executive alone received more than $6.4 million. Now, what do you say is a retention payment? AIG claims that these are not bonuses, but rather a necessity in order to hold on to top talent. This leaves me speechless. If the “top talent” of AIG are the ones that helped engineer this entire thing…. we are all VERY MUCH screwed.

The money that you worked very hard for, has already flowed into AIG like a waterfall. $200 billion has already been granted to the company to help keep it afloat. AIG was already on thin ice with taxpayers, and they wanted to help calm the flames by doing this? They are absolutely dumb, plain and simple.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the TARP program, but a line must be drawn somewhere. Economists say that these banks are just too big to fail. Well, then we have yet another problem. Through unending deregulation of the financial markets, these institutions have been allowed to roam free, while right-wing conservatives have padded their pockets with a little help from lobbyists. Now is the time to regulate, regulate, regulate the markets. The Free Market system cannot be allowed to go without oversight. We must have the regulations in place to stop this nonsense from ever happening again.

Now, how do we recover this money? I am no economist, but I say that the should government use its 80% ownership stake and let them keep the bonuses, as a severance package, and throw them out on the street where they belong. Then place an excise tax on these “retention payments,” as large of one as legal, and let them deal with their own financial woes, like the other millions in America right now.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.