The American public: Throwing away $170 billion

Who wants to work at AIG?

Seriously. The company is nationally (maybe internationally) hated. It’s 80% owned by the government, you’ll be the subject of protests all over the nation, and you’ll get death threats just because of who your employer is.

Sounds like a fun job, right?

How about this: what if AIG offered you about half as much money as every other firm you have job offers from? And then the government decided to tax your bonuses at 90%?

Sounds like a sweet deal, huh?

All of us taxpayers (snide note: not all Americans) now have a stake in AIG, and I for one, want my investment back. Which means I want smart people working at AIG.

Plus, the people that really deserve blame are already gone (from the Seattle Times article above):

Pasciucco said nearly all the troublesome sectors of the business — the risky credit derivatives written on mortgage-backed securities — are out of the equation, as are the people who worked on them. That leaves a small number of workers to untangle the remaining trades.

It’s starting to piss me off that we the American public seem to think throwing fit over $165 million is worth putting our $170 billion at additional risk. Because the more we hate AIG, the more of our own money we’re flushing down the toilet.

It’s kind of like buying a stock and then cheering as it drops off the charts. It’s against our interest.