# The AIG taxpayer bailout well spent **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 7, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891 "2008-10-07T19:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/21 "2008-10-07T21:02:26Z")
I’m normally a person who defends the high pay that CEOs get, even when they show up and do a crappy job. This, OTOH, is just ridiculous. Your company is in a shambles, thanks you your bad management, you’ve just gotten a bailout package, now is the time for you executives to earn those big dollars you’ve been paid. I’m talking 100 hour weeks, chinese takeout containers piling up in front of your offices, and a lot of guys in really smelly, rumpled, designer suits. This is what I expect from top executives that are pulling down millions per year, not hundreds of thousands of the company’s dollars blown on a fancy retreat. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/22 "2008-10-07T21:02:32Z")
> [@villa](#): > > But Holy God the timing of this is staggering. That’s just the thing. I can’t believe that these people are so colossally stupid that they don’t realize how this looks. It’s like they’re gleefully showing off their evil greed. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/23 "2008-10-07T21:04:16Z")
How about we push them out of a plane at 10,000 feet and see how well their golden parachutes work. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/24 "2008-10-07T21:06:40Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > How about we push them out of a plane at 10,000 feet and see how well their golden parachutes work. Can we throw in a golden shower for as an added bonus? ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/25 "2008-10-07T21:07:20Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > That’s just the thing. I can’t believe that these people are so colossally stupid that they don’t realize how this looks. It’s like they’re gleefully showing off their evil greed. Even if it was already paid for, and they could not get any of it back, going there looks downright despicable. Time to storm the Winter Palace, methinks. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/26 "2008-10-07T21:20:27Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > [This needs to happen more often.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3150319/Richard-Fuld-punched-in-face-in-Lehman-Brothers-gym.html) > [@linked article](#): > > Mr Fuld said: “I want to be very clear. I take full responsibility for the decisions that I made and for the actions that I took based on the information that we had at the time.” What do you think the word “responsibility” means to Mr. Fuld? It doesn’t seem to involve accountability. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/27 "2008-10-07T21:22:08Z")
What, no $5,000 an hour hookers? These poor bastards are suffering, I tell ya. ---
**Author:** ![Brunhilda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cdc98d/32.png) [@Brunhilda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brunhilda)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/28 "2008-10-07T21:31:16Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Even if it was already paid for, and they could not get any of it back, going there looks downright despicable. > > Time to storm the Winter Palace, methinks. That didn’t work out well for the last folks who tried it. [Bloody Sunday/ Russian Revolution of 1905](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)) ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/29 "2008-10-07T21:31:46Z")
When Robert Mugabwe hands out the nation’s assets to his friends he is a brutal tyrant. When we do it here it is saving capitalism. At least maybe this will provide another chance to see the effectiveness of trickle down economics. There’s a whole bunch of Monarch Beach strippers who have extra cash now. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/30 "2008-10-07T21:41:23Z")
Maybe we could, oh, I don’t know, make them pay higher taxes? Oh wait, McCain thinks that’s a bad idea. (Tax the rich. What was I thinking?) ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/31 "2008-10-07T21:47:18Z")
Let’s just eat the fuckers ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/32 "2008-10-07T21:52:20Z")
> [@Brunhilda](#): > > That didn’t work out well for the last folks who tried it. [Bloody Sunday/ Russian Revolution of 1905](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)) You’re talking about the wrong event-you want the [October Revolution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution). ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/33 "2008-10-07T21:55:32Z")
> [@Brunhilda](#): > > That didn’t work out well for the last folks who tried it. [Bloody Sunday/ Russian Revolution of 1905](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)) Yeah, but it was a start in the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![Valerieblaise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@Valerieblaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valerieblaise)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/34 "2008-10-07T22:00:10Z")
If the rooms came to $200,000 and meals came to $150,000 - that’s 3/4ths as much spent on meals as on rooms. What the hell were they eating? If you were staying in a room that was $100/night, I can see spending $75 on food for the day. But $750? How much of a surcharge can there be for room service? The spa charges - well, that’s just the cherry on top, really. While nowhere near as much was spent on the spa as on food, at least people can say they HAVE to eat. Were these people all so worn out from taking billions of taxpayer dollars that nothing could get accomplished until everyone had a massage? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/35 "2008-10-07T22:04:07Z")
But, but but … If you don’t pay high salaries, how are you going to get the best to be your CEOs. (The financial lobbying group was actually still using this argument during the bailout negotiations, which takes even more balls than going to this resort.) BTW, I pit the guy at Lehman’s who threw the punch - for not dropping the barbell on Fuld’s pointy little head. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/36 "2008-10-07T22:05:34Z")
> [@Valerieblaise](#): > > If the rooms came to $200,000 and meals came to $150,000 - that’s 3/4ths as much spent on meals as on rooms. What the hell were they eating? If you were staying in a room that was $100/night, I can see spending $75 on food for the day. But $750? How much of a surcharge can there be for room service? I bet it wasn’t food, it was hundred dollar a bottle wines and liquors. You can drop big bucks on that very easily. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/37 "2008-10-07T22:19:42Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I bet it wasn’t food, it was hundred dollar a bottle wines and liquors. You can drop big bucks on that very easily. $100 wine? [$2000+ per bottle](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1839963.stm) is what these people drink! ---
**Author:** ![kenner116](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@kenner116](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenner116)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/38 "2008-10-07T22:21:13Z")
Hey. It’s AIG’s money and they can do whatever the hell they want to do with it! Who the hell cares if they take a trip to California? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/39 "2008-10-07T22:26:36Z")
I predict a long, leisurely audit of these people. Preferably with something barbed. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891/40 "2008-10-07T22:48:06Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > I do really hope that a lot of people will be facing a lot of prison time soon. Me too. I am also hoping that a naked Scarlett Johansson will park a Ferrari in my driveway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aig-taxpayer-bailout-well-spent/466891.md?page=3)