Posted by
Pete Zimmerman on Sunday, March 22, 2009 9:07:49 PM
The outrage this week over AIG bonuses being paid out was deafening. How dare they?! How dare they pay people retention bonuses with taxpayer money?! So the pinheads in Washington proceeded to pass legislation to tax bonuses by 90% for those institutions that receive bail-out money. With a broad brush Congress is going to paint over the pinhead mistake at AIG, thus taxing all sorts of bonuses in many different financial companies.
Let's be clear, MOST bonuses paid in most companies go to employees who either do a good job themselves, or are part of a larger team or organization that is competent, responsible, and successful. The whole point of bonuses is to retain good employees who know what they are doing so that your company can be successful in the future. But congress will have none of that. Instead, they are under the illusion that these high performers will want to stay on to fix the financial problems just out of the goodness of their hearts, never mind they have families to feed and obligations to meet.
Here's an idea, let's start to offer bonuses for people to join/get elected to the U.S. Government, the U.S. Congress in particular. That way maybe, just maybe, we can get some high quality, high caliber people who just might know what the heck to do to solve the country's current financial mess (are you listening Tim?). The better job they do, the higher their bonus.
But I am under no illusion the pinheads will ever get a clue and do something really smart for a change.