Monday, March 30, 2009

How the rest of us are feeling, Mr. DeSantis

Last week the New York Times published a letter from Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president for A.I.G.

It was a pretty slick move. He's a honorable employee rat resigning leaving a sinking ship and donating his bonus to charity trying to make himself look good to potential employers.

Anyhow, this guy, Matt Tabbi, wrote a response that captures how us regular Americans are feeling.

Money quote:

"Only a person with a habitually overinflated sense of self-worth could think he deserves a $700,000 retention bonus, even if it has to be paid by taxpayers, when in reality no one "deserves" that much money. It may be that some people do get paid that much, but most people who make that much money have enough sense to realize their cushy lifestyles are an accident of fate, of birth, of class, not something that is "supported" by some unwritten natural law of compensation.

Hey Jake, it's not like you were curing cancer. You were a fucking commodities trader. Thanks to a completely insane, horribly skewed set of societal values that puts a premium on greed and severely undervalues selflessness, communal spirit and intellectualism -- values that make millionaires out of people like you and leave teachers and nurses, the people who raise your kids and clean your parents' bedpans, comparatively penniless -- you made a lot of money."

Amen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am listening to: The news
I am reading: It again, it's that good
And I am: Glad someone said it

4 comments:

Susan's Snippets said...

Hedy -

Amen....I say to that Amen!!

Mr. Matt Tabbi..that sums it all up.

an overflowing self worth cup

molly gras said...

THANK YOU for posting your commentary and this link to Matt's response ... I couldn't quite put my finger on WHY I was so annoyed with Jake's op-ed piece (I just was) and bless little Matt's heart, he nailed it all!

Thank you again!

PS - I hope they viral this thing a million times over in the blogosphere and put that jerk in his self-serving and sanctamonious place.

Dave said...

Since I spent four days, FOUR DAYS, without turning on a computer, I didn't catch the piece or the response: so, I really don't know the facts.

But, if the first guy made money for his piece of shit company, and $700K is a fair piece of it, why doesn't he deserve it?

Hedy said...

Dave: Do you know what RTFA stands for? :)

The thing is, it's nobody's business what this guy made or makes - as long as we the taxpayers aren't paying for it. It all comes back to this: If the bailout hadn't occurred, these guys would've got nothing because their company would no longer exist. Because we bailed them out with taxpayer money, we ought to have a say in how that bailout money is spent.