Yesterday, the New York Times published this letter on its Op-Ed page. I reacted to this letter almost with the same level of disgust as I did to the original bonus story. First, if no one involved with AIG will admit to knowing anything about Credit Default Swaps then why do we need to retain them to unwind the these idiotic contracts. AIGFP cannot have it both ways on this, they need to identify someone who has useful knowledge in regard to the swaps before saying they need to retain these people. Second, I view this guy's tone as totally self righteous – I was promised and I stayed because I love my country. Buddy if you loved your country so much you would work for a reasonable salary instead of stealing our money. Since you don't love your country enough for that, shut the hell up. Third, if you are worried about being shamed, then you should not have taken the shameful bonus. The shame is that you took money that you knew to be wrongfully promised and paid, which is also why you kept seeking reassurance that it would be paid. You knew it was wrong and you took it anyway.
As a separate point, we need to get rid of this ridiculous notion that people should work for $1 a year. People need to be paid a living wage for their work and the government should understand that. Not everyone talented enough to work for the government or in politics will have the wherewithal or desire to work for nothing. It's not honorable to work for a dollar. It's about turning our government into the playground of the rich and powerful who will be the only ones who can afford to have anything to do with the government. Isn't this the exact reason that we started paying people in government in the first place?
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