AIG: 2 USA: -85 Billion and Counting

So a few weeks ago AIG wins a record bail out of 86 billion dollars from the US tax payer.  Fortunately AIG despite their bungling has managed to become a major cornerstone of our economy, so much so that we just had to cough up the dough so that the rest of the country didn't sink along with their ship.  Not long after they get the cash do they go ahead and send 100 of their guys on a little spa retreat to tune of $440,000.  That must have been a nice trip, $4,400 a head for a weekend retreat... I hope they had a buffet!

AIG has defended their actions by letting the US tax payers know that the trip was for their Insurance division not their financial side.  The insurance side apparently has a pretty clean record according to AIG, and at least clean enough not to have been the party directly responsible for AIG falling in the ditch.  They further responded to criticism by saying that the trip was scheduled months in advance of the bail out. 

The issue here isn't whether or not the people who went on the trip were the people who crashed the company and cost us a lot of money.  The issue is how AIG treats money.  This kind of behavior is irresponsible and completely unacceptable and there is no reasonable way to justify this kind of expenditure... NO REASONABLE WAY!  Corporations are always talking about having to do this or that (like lay people off) to maintain or increase profits while simultaneously pissing money into the wind.  They don't care about their investors, at least not the public investor who may have invested in them through a fund or some other means without knowing a damn thing about the companies that received the proceeds.  I don't know if regulation is the answer.  The public, that's you and me, WE need to regulate by NOT investing in these kinds of firms and by demanding through our actions that things begin to change.

AIG got us all this time, well congress had a hand in it too but you know what I mean.  Yet, AIG is only one example of corporate greed and largess.  This kind of garbage happens every day in hundreds of corporations throughout the country.  These employees are treated to lavish accommodations and pampered well beyond what any human being should expect for simply showing up for work and doing one's job.  Corporations are free to use their money as they please, it is private money and belongs in their hands, idiots gave it to them to waste any way they please.  We need to stop falling for this kind of nonsense over and over again.  We need to stop investing in HUGE corporations just so we may sock away a few grand for retirement.  The stock market is a feeding trough for the greedy, both those who are invested in and those who do the investing themselves.  This easy money is not always so easy is it, and when the market falls on its face the people who are hurt the most are the people who did not even play the game.

As someone who is completely opposed to the entire wall street system and publicly traded common stocks, I am tired of having to see my tax money go to clean up the mess that someone else created and benefitted from.  You know the lottery slogan "you can't win if you don't play"?  The slogan for this game should be something to this effect: "Even if you don't play, you lose!" 

 TAKE ACTION!  REFUSE TO INVEST IN OR DO BUSINESS WITH AIG!