It's even more naive to think that its regular line staff getting big bonuses. Anyone who's worked in the finance industry (or any large corporation for that matter) knows that bonus compensation is very disproportionately distributed - nearly all of it goes to a few top executives.
These AIG bonuses were no different - the vast majority of the money DID go to just a handful of people. From NYTimes:
'On Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo reported that 73 A.I.G. employees were paid more than $1 million in bonuses.
"The highest bonus was $6.4 million, and six other employees received more than $4 million, according to Mr. Cuomo. Another 15 people received bonuses of more than $2 million, and another 51 people received bonuses of $1 million to $2 million."'
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/cuomo-gets-list-of-aig-bonus-recipients/
If you total that up, those 73 guys took off with at least 2/3 of the total bonus money. And out of those guys, 11 have already jumped ship after getting their money and left the company.
So much for "retention".
Who can blame them with the venom, anger and threats being spewed forth by congress, the media and the man on the street. I'm surprised Mr. Liddy didn't walk out of the hearing yesterday. I would have.
AIG has paid out close to $500 million in total performance and retention bonuses. The amts that are causing all the furor are simply the portion of that due on 3/15. Caught up in all of this, though you disagree, are many regular line staff, as you call them, that are foregoing the opportunity to leave AIG in return for their retention payments. Do you begrudge a person the opportunity to bring home a little extra when times are rough?
If that bonus is now criminalized what do they get? Many, if not all, of these people had absolutely nothing to do with the FP unit. Should they just be cast aside because the mob wants to see blood