tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post708735996910507901..comments2023-10-19T08:49:35.405-05:00Comments on Aún Estamos Vivos: Bonus ArmiesJeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10754406706300818849noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-51429621506251463812009-04-06T18:04:00.000-05:002009-04-06T18:04:00.000-05:00Hi William,I'm just thinking it might be time to w...Hi William,<BR/><BR/>I'm just thinking it might be time to wrap this thing up, that's all.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754406706300818849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-6714293537609196612009-04-04T11:26:00.000-05:002009-04-04T11:26:00.000-05:00Jeff, I enjoyed the post on Walking on the Road to...Jeff, <BR/><BR/>I enjoyed the post on Walking on the Road to Emmaus, but was unable to comment there for some reason.<BR/><BR/>Hope you're well.cowboyangelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13452987299073540171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-36425263840442173642009-03-28T14:11:00.000-05:002009-03-28T14:11:00.000-05:00William,I know what you mean. Like this guy, feel...William,<BR/><BR/>I know what you mean. Like <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2" REL="nofollow">this guy</A>, feeling sorry for himself...<BR/><BR/><I>After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself. <BR/><BR/>I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down...<BR/><BR/>So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree. <BR/><BR/>That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.<BR/><BR/>On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients. </I><BR/><BR/>So he's going to donate most of it... OK, good. Still, the petulance gets to me. <BR/><BR/>How many years has he been pulling 700K bonuses on top of a handsome salary? Working for $1 a year to set things right after his company contributed so much to tanking the world's economy is practically the least he could do. If AIG had gone down, his fault or not, he'd have gotten nothing. <BR/><BR/>Unlike AIG, my company is profitable, but I see high-performing people losing their jobs all the time for no other reason that they can be replaced by somebody cheaper in India.<BR/><BR/>The guys like him on Wall Street have been <I>loving that</I> and eating it up for years.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754406706300818849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-51939721825149208912009-03-26T18:48:00.000-05:002009-03-26T18:48:00.000-05:00Great post, Jeff.I knew very little about the Bonu...Great post, Jeff.<BR/><BR/>I knew very little about the Bonus Army, and nothing about MacArthur and Eisenhower's involvement. (This wasn't too long after Eisenhower, Patton and Pershing were chasing Pancho Villa in the mountains of Northern Mexico . . . without success.)<BR/><BR/>Yeah, what a time we live in. The most amazing to me is that many financial people are angry at everyone else for criticizing them. They can get incredibly snippy at people questioning them. I actually think they're more out of touch with most of our reality than politicians are. They just live in another world.<BR/><BR/>I love the protests at the homes of AIG execs. I don't want to see any physical harm come to them, but buy do I enjoy watching them squirm a little. Not the healthiest or most Christ-like attitude on my part, but, well....cowboyangelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13452987299073540171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-52339223334618008392009-03-20T17:22:00.000-05:002009-03-20T17:22:00.000-05:00Crystal,A lot of things might eventually contribut...Crystal,<BR/><BR/>A lot of things might eventually contribute to taking me down, but I doubt that overwork will be one of them.<BR/><BR/>Denny,<BR/><BR/><I>For me, the saving grace is that I already know how to live on very little.</I><BR/><BR/>I hear you. There's nothing like an old dented-up Honda, like the one you drive. :-)Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754406706300818849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-29932158105717197632009-03-20T01:16:00.000-05:002009-03-20T01:16:00.000-05:00Jeff --What a thoroughly educational post. I'm no...Jeff --<BR/><BR/>What a thoroughly educational post. I'm not sure how you found all this, but I had never heard about the "BONUS ARMY" before. <BR/><BR/>I'm not surprised about MacArthur and Eisenhower's respective positions on this, though. <BR/><BR/>I share your sentiment about the middle class since the '80s. Where in the world were they/we? In those days our family was living in the Seattle Catholic Worker house, and found an incredible apathy about these basic, bread-and-butter, economic issues.<BR/><BR/>Don't know where it's all heading. For me, the saving grace is that I already know how to live on very little.Deacon Dennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01045073538406901064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-78596070263226309702009-03-19T18:06:00.000-05:002009-03-19T18:06:00.000-05:00I don't really understand it all. Sometimes my ...I don't really understand it all. Sometimes my sister talks about what it was like when she lived in Japan, where job security is almost total but where the employees have to work so hard that there's actually a word for death by overwork - <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi" REL="nofollow">Karōshi</A>crystalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05681674503952991492noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-75725023888115668952009-03-19T14:32:00.000-05:002009-03-19T14:32:00.000-05:00Crystal,Is this not as it's always been, - corpora...Crystal,<BR/><BR/><I>Is this not as it's always been, - corporations using the lower cogs as cannon fodder and grotesquely over-rewarding those at the top? Maybe it's just that, with the economy so bad, middle class people are finally being affected?</I><BR/><BR/>I don't think it's always been like that. From the 1930s up until the 1980s it wasn't really like that, but with the Reagan Revolution, there was a shift back towards those robber baron days. <BR/><BR/>It's been a source of great frustration to me that the middle class has been blind to the fact that it has been in the process of being squeezed and shrinkened. A society without a middle class, which is polarized between rich and poor, becomes a violently ugly and unfree society. That's why I post so much on economic matters. With the economic crisis underway, though, more people are finally starting to see this for themselves.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754406706300818849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26437387.post-59798290833827326972009-03-18T23:47:00.000-05:002009-03-18T23:47:00.000-05:00I really have to learn more about economics. It h...I really have to learn more about economics. It hasn't affected me much - I have no job to lose, no bonus to not get, no stocks to tank, etc. I worry about my sister losing her job, though. Is this not as it's always been, - corporations using the lower cogs as cannon fodder and grotesquely over-rewarding those at the top? Maybe it's just that, with the economy so bad, middle class people are finally being affected?crystalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05681674503952991492noreply@blogger.com