Monday, March 16, 2009

Lines

I derive an enormous amount of pleasure out of hanging things out to dry. I'm like an animal out there, listening, sniffing. The birds! The cars revving their engines at the race track on Sunday morning! The realization that one of my neighbors really needs to have their septic tank pumped, if that isn't happening at this very moment, although it smells like it is.

I'm hoping a few more things will be hung out to dry. AIG keeps surfacing here. No, Congress, President Obama, don't let them pay out their 100-some million in bonuses! You have a contract? Let them sue. Publish all the names of those people who are getting the bonuses. Come on, I'm trying to send two kids to college here and maybe fill my bird feeders.

14 comments:

Rachel said...

This AIG thing is political hypocrisy at its most disgusting. AIG is paying out its contracted bonuses, which is the most cost-effective way they can continue their business (since being bailed out). If they breach contract, they'll get sued and lose, and end up paying more money...they even considered breaching contract and were advised by lawyers that it would be even more expensive. These bonuses are how their employees get paid, and they're contracted. The bottom line is, the government messed up by bailing out AIG, and now they're hypocritically implying that AIG is the organization in the wrong. Bottom line: government should have stayed out of it in the first place. These "bonuses" are just how AIG pays its regular employees.

Charmi said...

Well, I don't think it's going to fly and I don't think there's anything "regular" about it. And if there is, it ain't gonna be no more.

Jennifer said...

I totally LOVE hanging things out to dry. I feel like I'm cheating on Nipsco and I love that feeling. I swear I hear a "cha-ching" of a cash register every time I hang something! Besides, the sun bleaches out the diapers!

Charmi said...

Jennifer - I know! However, I have been banned from hanging out certain of Jojo's undergarments :-)

Talia Reed said...

I'm with you Rachel on the AIG thing.

And I'm with you Chrami and Jen on the clothesline. My friend Jana sent me an email last week announcing that she had hung her "first load out on the line today!" It's the small things in life.

Busstogate said...

If you all expect me to beleive that these employees recieving bonus are working on straight commission than ya'll are as crazy as the plan to give them even more money to squander.

Don't suddenly assume that because gov't has overzealously tried to fix everything at once that these corporate frauds are innocent simply because they have engaged in the same business practices that doomed the steel mills.

Why should everyone be so suprised we are in the jam we are in? We should have been more surprised in the 90's when we had a short break from the ill effects of hoarding the fruits of capital and not reinvesting.

Rachel said...

Um, actually, that IS how insurance agents get paid. My uncle was an insurance agent his whole career, and he made a poverty-level base salary plus a contracted year-end bonus. These are CONTRACTS, covered under contract law. Obama and Congress can't do anything about it, and it's the most cost-effective way for AIG to continue the business. The problem that all these politicos seem to be ignoring is that AIG should have been allowed to go out of business as the free market dictated. They should own up to their own mistakes and quit trying to pass the buck - quite literally.

Charmi said...

Um, well, no. It's not how they get paid. It literally is a bonus, a retention bonus, not their regular salary. And yes, AIG is contracted to pay it. But, if AIG hadn't been bailed out, the employees would be standing in line like all the rest of the creditors to get their bonus money. The New York Times has a good article today in favor of paying it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/business/17sorkin.html?_r=1&ref=business

I'm still not sold.

Rachel said...

I'm not sold on massive government spending either way. Whether it's Bush or Obama or Pelosi, I don't care...they all need to be brought down a peg and remember that they work for us, not the other way around. As for AIG people standing in the unemployment line, what makes them special? Small businesses that have been fiscally responsible are getting screwed, and they're the ones who run our economy. So in the end, we're getting screwed, too. Why do certain companies get bailouts? It's easy...follow the money...who got those pols elected?

Charmi said...

Unfortunately, one of the problems we're encountering is a lack of transparency. I'll give you that, Rachel. And that started quite a while back. It's hard to even follow the money.

Rachel said...

We're totally in agreement about transparency. Hmmm...wasn't that somebody's campaign promise?

We need to get together one of these beautiful days and walk in the woods. I miss the creek.

Charmi said...

Everything is starting to wake up. Gene heard spring peepers last night. I'll be gone for a few days, then we'll walk.

Louise Mathias said...

there is nothing so wonderful as the smell of laundry dried in the fresh air. wonderful.

Charmi said...

I enjoy it so much, it's so peaceful out there.