While you're right on about how these compensation packages are constructed, one could ague that these workers might not be so "skilled" considering they ran their firms into the ground. People aren't (or at least shouldn't be) angry over people being paid for good performance, but the perception at least is that these people are being rewarded despite doing a remarkably terrible job. The populist outrage has some merit considering without taxpayer support these companies would be bankrupt and these people would have no jobs and (I assume) no bonuses.
The perception is that these people are being "rewarded" at all. They aren't being rewarded, they're being made whole. They're simply being paid the wages that are owed to them.
It doesn't matter whether any individual trader turned a profit or not. He should be paid the wages he was promised for the work he performed. And the rest of the country should shut the eff up about it.
Don't forget that the very purpose of giving the money to AIG in the first place was to prevent bankruptcy. That means AIG is supposed to use the money to pay back the people it owed,
including all of their employees!This whole manufactured mess is stupidity on stilts. Anyone who stops to actually
think about what's happening here, instead of simply
feeling emotional class envy, would realize that AIG did the right thing here.
And therein lies the real problem, jealousy.
Exactly.