Some people are vengeful, calling for jail, public humiliation or even revolution over the decision by the American International Group to award $165 million in bonuses to employees who were in part responsible for the insurance giant’s near collapse — though few go as far as Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who has suggested that company executives should “resign or go commit suicide.”
While politicians and opinion leaders have been making their outrage over the bonus payments loudly known over the last few days, the most passionate voices, not surprisingly, could be found on the Internet — on blogs and discussion threads — in unusually bountiful numbers, The New York Times’s A.G. Sulzberger reports.
The comments that follow were posted to the Web site of The New York Times in response to articles chronicling the latest episodes in the nation’s economic struggles.
“This is absolutely disgusting,” wrote Adam, from Los Angeles. “Any such contractual obligations should be broken. The company should be fully nationalized and the people who brought it to its knees, along with the economy as a whole, by manufacturing derivative contracts and obligations that the company lacked the capital to meet, should be put in jail.
“In fact, I would recommend a show trial of sorts in the name of public catharsis. These people should be stripped of their titles and wealth and punished for their reckless behavior. Who cares about contractual obligations? They trampled the spirit of the law.
“When you are too big to fail, as A.I.G. obviously is, then you have to abide by a standard of behavior that is far above the one that was followed by its executives. People are angry, and A.I.G. is making a big mistake by lavishly rewarding its executives.”
From Saturday evening through Tuesday morning, more than 7,000 A.I.G.-related comments were posted on nytimes.com. The remarks take aim at a host of people or institutions believed responsible, from Republicans to Democrats, Wall Street, Main Street, capitalist society in general or all of the above, though few go as far as the suggestion by Senator Grassley.
Others try to tackle the underlying issues with a bit more nuance — or even in verse . Taken together, however, the posts represent a near-consensus among readers that these bonuses should not have been awarded and should not be allowed to stand.
“Outfits like A.I.G. should have been liquidated or nationalized, and their top matadors prosecuted for corporate fraud under every law on the books,” wrote Settembrini, USA. “Is there any spine left in Congress? Or anywhere? I am reluctant to criticize this young administration without giving it a chance to prove itself, but caving in this early does not bode well.”
Since The Times began attaching readers’ comments to specific articles in October 2007, only a few issues have prompted similar levels of reaction, including the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as the Republican nominee for vice president; the divisive Democratic primary battle between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama; and the multibillion-dollar bailout of General Motors and Chrysler.
Yet the most striking difference is the degree to which people are united in their outrage.
Continued>>>
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/aig-bonuses-strike-a-nerve-on-the-internet/
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