Actually, I thought expensive hooch was probably a percentage of that, but I guess I’m a little naive in that I figured they’d try to justify spending on things they can call necessities (lodging, food) rather than just blatantly throwing money away on spa treatments and pricey liquor. It just seems so SHAMELESS.
About time somebody came in and gave us a good talking to about how essential these guys are, how they add value, and stuff. How they benefit all of us by creating wealth.
Let’s have a little perspective here, people. Yes, they may have blown $440,000 at a retreat-- but the government had just bailed them out to the tune of $85 BILLION DOLLARS. In light of all that, what’s a measly half-million? Nothing. Trifles, light as air.
Consider: if someone handed you $85 MILLION dollars, would you suddenly think it an outrageous expense to spend $440 on a plane ticket? This is exactly the same thing, only with the decimal moved a few places.
So let’s get off our high horses, shall we? Whose fault is it that YOU’RE not the one your government is spending billions on to rescue from your mistakes? Can you really claim that you wouldn’t be doing the exact same thing in these guys’ shoes? I tell you, if I were so rich that the American economy was held hostage to my whims, I wouldn’t let anyone forget it either. I’d learn to smoke specifically so I could light cigars with hundred-dollar bills. Hell, I’d skip the smoking and just light stacks of hundred-dollar bills with hundred-dollar bills. Maybe I’d get Third World children to smoke the bills for me, just to see if it stunts their growth over time.
No sweat, all in good fun. Freak freely! and keep on rockin’ in the Free World.
Yer pal,
e.
Yeah, we screwed up and now you are bailing us out. What the fuck are you going to do about it?
That’s basically what they said.
I certainly hope that’s a joke. If not, then no it isn’t. It’s my money.
And I want it back.
Actually it’s China’s money.
Exactly–they’re not clueless or tone deaf or stupid–they don’t care. They are out of touch with regular America and don’t want to be in touch with them. They are entitled assholes who are not worth a tenth of what they got–who the hell is? How can anyone with a straight face say that getting $300 million over 8 years is somehow less than $480? Yes, technically, arithmetically, it IS less, but they’re both so massively bloated as to be insane. I don’t care if this guy somehow added wealth to any market or firm–no one is worth that much for a job performance. Building wealth is another matter–but getting paid that amount to help your firm down the tubes?
Did we fall down the rabbit hole with Alice? 
I absolutely meant the first one. The second would have been ineffective without the first. That was a real turning point in Russian history. I’m not advocating violence at all. I am advocating peaceful protest, which is why I linked to the first march on the Winter Palace, rather than the second. I don’t think our country is hearing our grievances properly. We need to protest uniformly, not start shooting. I think that the voice of the average person is being drowned out by special interest lobbyists who are very well funded.
Nah, they’re too damn slimy for that.
Shit. Talk about a culture of entitlement. Sure, it’d been a rough month or so for them. Big fucking whoop. It’s been a nightmarish time for just about everybody, not the least the people who got laid off. And whose retirement funds 20% of their value. And of course us happy-camper taxpayers who got to assume their vastly inflated garbage investments.
Their isolation doesn’t excuse one glaring lack: where the fuck is their shame? They ran companies straight into the ground. They fucked up so badly they had to invent entire new ways to fuck up. Forget going to luxury resorts for R&R. How the hell were they able to show their smug, incompetent faces in public at all?
Sure, western business types don’t have a tradition of falling on their swords after failures but that strikes me as rather unfortunate right now. If they can’t muster up the resolve for a ritual disembowelment at least they should have the common sense and decency to keep a low profile–like stay in seclusion on their estates–for the foreseeable future.
Assholes. I’m trying not to get angry because it won’t help anything, particularly my blood pressure. But damn, it’s hard.
While your math might be flawless, the real issue here is the psychology - the US government just bailed them out with taxpayer money, and it looks terrible for them to take this trip right now, regardless of how small a drop in the bucket it really is.
ETA: I have the debate on in the background, and I think Obama just mentioned this.
Don’t worry! The FBI is checking into whether they’ve broken any laws. I’m sure they’re quaking in their boots.
Why hasn’t Congress passed laws that limit last minute pillaging of companies’ coffers as, like the rats that they are, the executives jump off the ship right before it sinks.
It’s not just Obama’s fault and it’s not just McCain’s fault. It’s everybody’s fault, including those of us who haven’t written one single email to their Congressmen whining loudly and clearly that this. isn’t. acceptable. and they MUST put a stop to it. It’s only if they are in fear for their job that our Congress will stop protecting wealthy businessmen who fill their re-election campaign coffers and stand up for idiots like me who’ve supported companies who are being run by thieves.
True, but usually when people talk about storming the Winter Palace, they mean the second. The first time, the intent, at least, was a peaceful protest march to speak with the Tsar (who, unbeknown to the people, was not there at the time), and ended in a massacre. The October Revolution is usually what people are referring to when they talk about the storming of the Winter Palace, since that time they actually succeeded. 
Obama-channeling-Trump from the debate earlier this evening: “You’re fired.”
Not to rain on a hippy douchebag parade or anything, but that article leaves a lot of questions unanswered. This soiree could have been planned months in advance and already paid for.
As long as they don’t breach their fiduciary duty to their shareholders (which now includes me and you), AIG’s directors can spend the corporation’s money however it wants to. I’m sure they will be donating some to schools and orphanages and whatnot and we won’t hear a peep out of you guys.
And it could have been a gift from a generous fat man in a red suit, but I doubt it.
If a company is in such financial dire straits that it schedules and pre-pays for expensive shit like that, they don’t deserve to be bailed out. Your hypothetical situation, even if true, does little to inspire my confidence that our money went toward a good cause.
I still want it. I could buy a lot of really fancy stuff with that kind of money. It’s my own brand of tickle-up economics.
But they did.
I would have a lot more sympathy for Conservatives if they could read.
Who cares if it was already paid for and you couldn’t get a dime back? You still don’t go.