forward page

Bailout Being Wasted

By Nicky Bicksler
Staff Writer

Thanks to the American International Group, every person financially struggling in America received a smack in the face.

After the company received $182.5 billion in a federal bailout, they used $165 million to give bonuses to their employees, according to MSNBC.com.

I cannot believe a company would be so selfish in today’s crumbling economy.

People are losing their homes and other personal items because they cannot afford to keep them, and an insurance group thinks it’s OK to use federal bailout money to be greedy.

Bailout money is not meant to be extra money in the salaries of the top executives, but as a way to keep the company from going bankrupt.

According to MSNBC.com, the company said the bonuses were necessary to keep the people in the office who know how to run the company.

My guess is that these people already had  large salaries, and would not leave to face a world with employment uncertainty if they did not get a bonus.

The most ironic aspect of this whole thing is that Americans are not getting any kind of bonus, except the whopping $13 a week.  The middle- and lower-class families are the ones who need the bonuses, not top officials of a major company.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. President Barack Obama’s bailout plan is a joke. This AIG bonus scheme is the prime example of why it is a joke.

He says there are strict government regulations on what the bailout money can be used for, but no one was able to catch the bonus plan in time for them to stop.

Plus, who can even imagine what to do with the extra $13 a week Obama has promised in our paychecks?

The whole catastrophe with AIG has made me angrier than I have been in months.

I want any of those executives who got over a million-dollar bonus to live in the shoes of the middle class for a month. My guess is they will hate their lives.

Why do the people in charge and the people who control business in this country believe it is OK to stomp all over working-class Americans?

If it were not for the working class, these people would have no one for whom to work.

MSNBC.com reported that a busload of protestors showed up at the lavish homes of the top AIG executives to protest the bonuses.

I’m happy some people decided to protest something that is unfair. I may have joined them if I knew about it.
Congress has begun a plan to tax 90 percent of the bonuses, according to MNSBC.com.

I believe the people who received the bonuses should be forced to give all of it to people in need.

The company’s chief executive has urged anyone who received more than $100,000 to return at least half, according to MSNBC.com. My guess is that will never happen.  

If I were in charge, I would order the money be used in less greedy ways.

They should use that money to help catch up families with bills. They should use that money to help homeless shelters provide more necessities for people.  They should use that money to buy decent meals for starving people in America.

Maybe if these people understand what it means to give, they would be more thankful for what they have, and not be so greedy when it comes to their next bonus check.