So, the whole country is in an uproar over these AIG bonuses. According to Wikipedia, AIG has received over $170 billion in bailout money. The bonuses that have been paid out total $165 million, although some sources are reporting the total to now be closer to $218 million.
Now, assuming the worst case of $218 million dollars, only .12% of the tax-payer money went to bonuses. I should point out that the number is not twelve percent, but point-twelve percent. That’s just slightly more than one tenth of one percent.
Ideally, none of the tax-payer money would have gone to bonuses that were contingent on performance. Clearly everyone with any real level of responsibility at AIG under-performed at best. But, should this really be monopolizing the national dialogue? Does the average news-watching American know where 99.88% of the bailout money went or what purpose it served?
This XKCD comic points out the problem I’m having with the media:
