Katelynn McGinley
Features Editor
Right now, A.I.G. is the company that America loves to hate. Since the September bailout plan was set into motion, the insurance company has taken upwards of $170 billion in bailout money from U.S. taxpayers and keeps coming back for more. Just where is this staggering amount of money going, exactly?
Well, about $165 million of it is going to retention bonuses for A.I.G. executives.Seriously? I’d like for you to think about that for a second. Your tax dollars are being used to reward the executives of this company for sucking so badly at their jobs that their company was on the verge of collapsing completely. Not only reward them ? retention bonuses imply that they are preventing these executives from quitting and moving on to more lucrative careers, shilling Domino’s BAILOUT PIZZA DEALS, or something. Because, after all, nothing sells pizza like an economy that’s in the toilet.
There are viable reasons that economists, former President Bush, current President Obama, and countless other members of Congress from both parties can argue for the bailout of insurance companies like A.I.G., the automobile industry, and home ownership corporations like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, the bailout saga took a bizarre turn this week when Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis made a ? serious ? petition to Congress asking for a $5 billion bailout for the adult entertainment industry.
“The government is handing out money to the auto industry,” Francis said, “why shouldn’t it hand some to an industry the nation could not live without?”
Uh, all due respect, but I can think of several things off the top of my head in this country that should take precedence over the adult entertainment industry. College students thinking of selling a kidney for a chemistry textbook, or teachers and doctors working in underfunded, inner city establishments, for example, are probably a little more deserving of some of that $5 billion pocket change.
Get your priorities straight, America.