The Musings of an Ex-AIG Executive

I find this letter of resignation from a top AIG executive both informative and humanizing. It’s refreshing to see a point of view other than the angry mob of lynchers who are taking out all of their economical frustrations on the largest scapegoat of them all – AIG. While the ‘bonuses’ that these executives received were ridiculously out of line with acceptable wages, I agree with the fact that these employees worked 14 hour days, all year long, and were contractually obligated to receive these ‘bonuses.’ Call me a capitalist, but I don’t necessarily think it was wrong for AIG to issue additional compensation to their *current* employees, who were entitled to this level of salary when they agreed to the position.

Furthermore, Obama is calling for the head of Edward Liddy, while he received $104,332 from AIG last year for his presidential campaign. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AIG gave a total of $644,218 to federal candidates over the last election cycle. Perhaps this money should be returned to the taxpayers as well.

The fact that AIG wanted to fulfill their obligations to their employees by paying them their contracted salary is not something that is shameful or abominable. There are much worse and evil corporations than AIG out there – believe me, I work in PR.