So, like the rest of America, I’ve been at least somewhat following the uproar surrounding the AIG Bonus debacle. At first, I was just like everyone else - furious that AIG would accept my taxpayer money and proceed to give it out to top executives as a bonus. Then I started thinking.

Let’s look at the numbers. AIG reported giving out $165 million in bonuses. Some sources claim the number to be upwards of $215 million. That’s a lot of money. How much money was AIG given in the bailout? $185 billion. Let’s look at it a different way. Bonuses: $215,000,000. Bailout: $185,000,000,000.

Given the scope of things. I think it is ABSOLUTELY APPROPRIATE that they spent 1-2% of the bailout money to ensure that their top talent stays through the restructure and selling off of their profitable businesses to repay the bailout loan. If I were an employee of a doomed business, I wouldn’t be terribly inclined to stick around. There’s no motivation. No matter how hard you work, that business is still going to be sold off and you are still going to be out of a job when that happens. Accepting a bonus as part of a bailout removes the financial concerns that would come with that.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not defending AIG as a whole. They made some stupid decisions that bit them on the butt, and they should’ve been allowed to fail. I’m also not defending the bailout - again, they should have been allowed to fail.

Congress and the AG just made a big deal over this so they could make AIG look like the bad guys. They’re freaking wasting time and money making AIG go through all the red tape. Forcing them to reveal names and retract the bonuses is stupid and is actually hampering AIG’s restructuring plans.

And I’m still not happy they gave AIG my money.