Government and Business

This recent AIG issue about the top executives getting millions of dollars in bonuses is a perfect example of why the government needs to stay out of the business sector.  One word comes to my mind when looking at the current administration and that is ignorance.  The government was ignorant to the fact that a legal contract trumps any threats made by the government.  AIG is required by law to pay these bonuses because that was part of the employment contract.  The taxpayers of this country now own the majority share in AIG, about 80%.  The problem is that we have entrusted our own voting rights to a Government that has no clue how to run a successful business.  This is evident in the way the government is throwing around taxpayer money, and bailing out companies that should not be saved.  AIG will never be able to pay off their debt to the government, and now that the people know this we should be questioning the motives behind our current administration.

The current administration has been chasing their tail trying to save their image.  A quote from our commander in chief shows the ignorance of our government in dealing with business. "It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," Obama said. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"  The executives have no reason to justify anything to the taxpayer because these contracts were in place long before the company took any government monies.  The government should have done their homework before wasting the hard earned money of the American people.  If the company was forced to file a chapter 11 bankruptcy then these contracts would have been voided in the process.  Obama has stated that he wants the treasury department to do everything possible to stop these bonuses from being paid.  The problem that the American people should have with fighting these contracts is the cost of litigation.  More taxpayer money wasted because the government jumped in before they knew how to swim.  

The blame for all of the tax payer monies that are being wasted cannot fall only on the Obama administration but must be spread evenly to the congress as well; the elected officials that are supposed to represent the American people.  We have elected a Congress that is more concerned about pushing their liberal polices than pushing the concerns of the people.  The people that we have elected have promised change, and change is exactly what we are seeing.  The government is changing the very foundations of our economic system by infecting the market with taxpayer money that comes with strings attached.  AIG is a perfect example of how those strings mean nothing, and compensate failure.  Capitalism in its most simple form is the exact opposite; failure cannot be compensated but punished.  Failure must be punished and success must be compensated; a very simple fact that we tend to forget about our great Nation’s economic structure.  Rewarding failure generates stagnation because there is no incentive to be innovative.  When the government intervenes in an economy they push for equality and that equality threatens the most important aspect of our economy, competition.  Without competition our economy cannot grow and we will be stuck in this recessionary hole much longer than necessary.   We the People have the power to protect our economy and that power is granted by the Constitution.  We need to stand up and elect officials that will reduce the size of the government, we cannot change the very foundations of our great Nation because we are the most successful nation in history and we need to keep it that way.