Posted by
"Mind and Morals" Michael Coyne on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:28:00 PM
Gotta love the media.
I absolutely love the coverage that all of the media outlets
are giving to the AIG bonuses. To hear them tell it:
“Look at those horrible
capitalists! They’re being bad with money! For shame…”
Yeah. OK. Now; let’s look at what really happened. Here’s
the whole picture:
1)
AIG, like so many other groups, was
irresponsible with money. So, they lost money and faced a financial meltdown.
Such is the nature of free-market capitalism. In other words: they SHOULD have
failed. That’s how people and companies learn.
2)
The Government decides to float those
irresponsible individuals a crap load of our money.
3)
The irresponsible company fails to learn their
lesson; assumes that there will always be a government safety net.
4)
The company continues the irresponsible behavior
by giving outlandish bonuses to executives. Much like a child assumes that he
can blow all his birthday money on candy and trading cards, and mommy and daddy
will still provide for his other wants.
Can anybody say, “Duh?” What the hell did you think was
going to happen? Rewarding bad behavior only yields more bad behavior. The
Government essentially gave AIG a pat on the back for bad business practices,
and now they are claiming to be surprised that the bad business practices
didn’t change? Are we serious here?
I don’t blame AIG for blowing money on bonuses. That’s not
the part that I find egregious. I
have issues with the government giving them money in the first place. Just like
I don’t blame the child in the above example for wasting all his money. Just
like I don’t blame that same child when he cries and whines and screams in the
middle of the supermarket when his parents don’t buy him the new toy he wants.
I blame the parents for letting him waste his money in the first place. I blame
the parents for letting that child think that he was entitled to anything he
wanted. By the same token, I blame the Government for allowing poor-performing
corporations to believe that they were entitled to abuse taxpayer funds.
As usual, the problem is really the Government’s fault. I
will say it one more time; this message is as true for Governments as it is for
parents as it is for individuals:
Rewarding
bad behavior will only yield more bad behavior. You do not get to be surprised
or outraged when it actually happens.