by Keith Distel

Created on: March 21, 2009   Last Updated: March 28, 2009

I do not believe that the people at AIG who received bonuses should be forced to pay the money back. I know that this idea will outrage many of you. But first hear out my reasoning. This is not an issue that should be driven by anger or righteous moral beliefs. This argument is all about legalities.

The federal government as directed by the congress bailed this company out. The federal government wrote a bill into law (actually it was authored by Christopher Dodd) that guaranteed that any and all bonuses owed by AIG contractually would be paid. By Connecticut state law, if the company had withheld them, the people who were owed these bonuses could have collected double the amount plus the legal fees involved. Therefore it made perfect monetary sense for AIG to pay these bonuses.

When a company goes into bankruptcy it severs all the contracts binding it to pay out monies owed. Thus the point of the bankruptcy. When the federal government decided that it was more important to "bail" this company out than to let capitalism work and things to iron themselves out it took on the debt to pay these bills. There are huge natural repercussions that come about when the federal government meddles in things it was never meant to have any hand in. In the future we will see that the care manufacturers will suffer from the interference of the government in that the unions will drive the car companies over the edge of economic collapse. Like AIG, GM and Chrysler needed to be allowed to break the contracts with the union so as not to pay people who no longer work for their company. This is the reason why the feds should never have involved themselves in this business deal, or any other business deal in America.

Many of the people who were paid these "bonuses" worked for as little as one dollar for a year. These people put in 12 and 14 hour days. These people made the company money and did not engage in illegal activities. They stayed with a collapsing company because the CEO promised them this money. He promised that if they worked hard he would reimburse them for their time. Workers turned down job offers from rival companies to stay with a company that they felt had their best interests at heart and that they felt loyalty to for that reason. Forcing these people to give back these bonuses is like your boss asking you to work for free. Would you do it?

The idea that we as Americans are now attacking and threatening these people who worked hard for the money they are being paid is against everything the founding fathers fought for. This attack is being ginned up by the leftists in power in order to distract us from the ugly deals they are making at the same time.The taking of the money by the federal government is a gross malfeasance on the part of the lawmakers who use it as such. Under the law this is referred to as a bill of attainder and is outlawed by our constitution. I have a great and growing fear that we as a people are being slowly ruled by the mob mentality and the idea that the law and capitalism as a way of doing things is dying. I know that there are many who feel that they will be better off if the congress takes these actions. I know that this is a slippery slope down which it is long climb back out.

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