Perspective Sucks

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

-Obi Wan Kenobi

Would that we had Ben here to help us out with the economy. AIG is about to give out $165M in bonuses after receiving $173B in government bailout (taxpayer) money. Am I outraged?

Nope.

I did the math:

165,000,000 / 173,000,000,000 = 0.00095 = 0.095%

In other words the bonuses are less than one tenth of one percent of the bailout money. That's like spending 25 cents on a candy bar on the way home with your $300 Christmas bonus.

So the bonuses, which are paid according to employment contracts established before AIG received bailout money, are not the travesty. The travesty is that candy bars cost way more than 25 cents.