{"id":922,"date":"2009-03-16T19:06:54","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T03:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/?p=922"},"modified":"2009-03-17T04:48:17","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T12:48:17","slug":"its-about-our-fundamental-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/its-about-our-fundamental-values\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s about our fundamental values”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” Obama asked. “This isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents. It’s about our fundamental values.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s President Obama on his increasingly hysterical<\/span> strident attempt<\/a> to force AIG to renege on its contract to it managers.<\/p>\n

For me, this the most telling moment in Mr. Obama’s presidency.\u00a0 Here is where he gets to show us his fundamental stripes.\u00a0 This is his teaching moment to the nation.\u00a0 His choice is as simple as it is inescapable: A or Not A:<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 The AIG executives whose irresponsible, short-sighted behavior pushed their firm to the brink of insolvency, and who forced our nation to bail them out at an unconscionable cost, are now in a position to reap the rewards of a contract that was put into place long before anyone suspected that their mistakes would lead to disaster.\u00a0 The media has been calling the payments from this contract a “bonus.”\u00a0 It is not a bonus.\u00a0 A bonus is something you earn for performing.\u00a0 It is, in theory, forfeitable if you fail to earn it.\u00a0 This contract guarantees payment.\u00a0 This is like salary that has been deferred, to be paid in installments.\u00a0 Calling it a bonus twists the word beyond recognition, and serves to needlessly inflame passions.<\/p>\n

As distasteful as it to see these people receive this payment, whatever it’s called, this nation is built on people honoring their agreements.\u00a0 Children learn about the basic requirements of civilization on the playground when they are rebuked for reneging on their promises, or welching on a deal.\u00a0 Americans don’t welch.\u00a0 Americans don’t look for excuses to welch.\u00a0 We know how easy it is to find them.\u00a0 Americans don’t encourage welching.<\/p>\n

Besides, we don’t need to encourage the abrogation of a legitimate contract, no matter how ill-conceived or inopportune, in order to restore a sense of fairness in this particular situation.\u00a0 The CEO of AIG, a man appointed after its collapse to help bring things under control, has determined that the people in this group, the group that destroyed the company, have many non-contractual elements to their pay.\u00a0 The non-contractual elements do not have to be paid.\u00a0 For the 25 top executives, their salaries, ranging from $270 thousand to $500 thousand, will be reduced to $1, largely counteracting the value of their bonuses.\u00a0 Every other manager in the group will have their bonuses largely counteracted by a 10 percent reduction in their salaries.\u00a0 These managers are free to leave, whereby they will forfeit their remaining bonuses.\u00a0 Or they may stay on, to try to apply their talents to remedy the destruction their unit has wrought, and be paid a fair wage for doing so.<\/p>\n

Not A<\/strong>:\u00a0 We don’t want the company to pay these people, regardless of any agreements.\u00a0 We’re angry.\u00a0 We can’t let individuals who have harmed us hide behind a contract.\u00a0 Paying these people would offend our sensibilities.\u00a0 We will use all our power to prevent it.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong> is the rule of law<\/a>.\u00a0 Not A<\/strong> is the rule<\/a> of<\/a> men<\/a>.\u00a0 This, Mr. President, is where you clarify for the young people who supported you what kind of country you want them to inherit.\u00a0 Which is it?<\/p>\n

UPDATE:\u00a0 This morning I added a little to his “A” speech.\u00a0 He won’t mind.\u00a0 We just feed it into the teleprompter…<\/p>\n

One of the more unfortunate slurs heaped upon our Native Americans is the term “Indian giver,” which is opprobrium for someone who takes back what they give or promise to another.\u00a0 It is particularly ironic that we apply it to a group to whom we have violently broken so many promises, using their rebellion and occasional crimes as an excuse, and taking shameful advantage of their political vulnerability.
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” Obama asked. “This isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents. It’s about our fundamental values.” That’s President Obama on his increasingly hysterical strident attempt to force AIG to renege on its contract to it managers. For me, this the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revealed-preference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":924,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}