> Chuck wrote: > this business of the 90% tax came about. Because there was no legal way to > stop them from collecting the money. So the government got creative and > targeted these people who did nothing wrong legally (again, in the specific > case of collecting their bonus). >
I agree with everything you said, but just would add something you missed: the US taxpayer is now a majority investor in AIG. Majority investors are typically activist, if they're smart, and well within their reason for doing so. Usually this activists put people on the board to watch over things and make sure shit like this doesn't happen. In this case, Congress and the President happens to be our guy on the board. So there are a couple of tricky questions: (1.) What span of control does the government have in a private company's operations in cases like this? (2.) What is the mechanism of that control if any? Board seat(s)? Execs? Operational dictation? (3.) Companies hire lobbyists to pass legislation that is favorable to legislators and the company. In this case the company is the legislators so does that mean company or industry laws are equivalent to lobbied law? It starts to get pretty tricky. One could easily argue that the tax law is no different than, say, pollution laws. Or the law could - and probably is - written not against a specific group of individuals as it is against bonuses for failed companies run by government by necessity. Frankly that's great incentive for companies to avoid failing - and apparently they need them. So this issue is a hell of a lot more complicated than simple taxing bonuse ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:293072 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
