Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A little perspective is need, but more from their side.

CNN.com: "Commentary: Will innocents at AIG pay the price?"

Yes, your company is hated. Why shouldn't it be? Because you know it to better? Of course you do. You worked there. And you might think it unfair.

But stop a moment and think: Your company is being helped to tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and the only reason nobody's let it drop is fear of a larger meltdown. And then some of your friends, and yes, you, suddenly get millions of dollars to stick around. Suddenly the folks who, from the public, unfamiliar perspective, seem least qualified in the world to be rewarded and retained, get paid millions of dollars for the "good work", millions of dollars to stick around.

If you didn't have the benefit of familiarity with all the nice people of your company, just what would there be to justify something of this kind?

Not much.

Do you feel unfairly painted with a broad brush? Well, I'm afraid that's what happens with corporate identity in these times, especially in the financial world. It takes quite a few more seconds for people to process an explanation as to how AIG was this otherwise good insurance company with a hideous boil of a financial division on its back, but it doesn't take so long to explain that AIG is asking for yet more money to cover it. You can try and pretend that they are other people, over there, and everybody else is untouched, but that's not what the balance sheet says.

Understand this: your company made decisions regarding this subsidiary which put the national economy at risk. It was one of many companies that pushed for the greater mingling of finance, insurance, and stockbrokering, and which either consolidated such companies after the deregulation, or created them wholesale. As a corporation, AIG doesn't get to act like it's not responsible for the mess of one subsidiary; it's a collective enterprise. And why was this division allowed to run amok? Probably because it made lots and lots of money for your company.

I feel for the people who are threatened with violence because of this, and I would hate to learn that not every step was being taken to safeguard those who's association with the company has brought a nation's anger to their door. Fortunately, as of today, I have heard of nobody being hurt over this. But there will always be those whose impulse control is as bad as their judgment, and they deserve to be stopped before their idiocy does anybody harm.

But is America not allowed to feel anger of the normal, non-psychotic kind? Is it not allowed to wonder how all their jobs and fortunes and retirement could come to depend on one company, which though perhaps irresponsible with just one little division, let that one little division help create a worldwide economic crisis? What about all the innocent people out there in America, whose fortunes are in the process of being sacrificed to keep this company propped up?

I'm sorry, but your bad experience compares nothing to the pain and suffering that your company's problems dangle over American's heads. Should you expect the people angry at you to abide by the law, and not seek extra-legal methods of retribution? Of course you should. Should you expect everybody to rationally come to the conclusion that since AIG is filled mostly by nice, hardworking people, that they shouldn't feel anger, feel bitter and betrayed?

I don't think you should. I don't think that is a reasonable thing to expect of people who will never know the company the way you do, whose only experience of the company will be of it being a corporate Sword of Damocles. It would be better if folks like you did not come to the American people expecting apologies for our fears, anxieties, and the anger that accompanies them. It would be better if you took a more humble approach, a more understanding approach, and asked for understanding for those individuals who just happen to work for one of history's most notorious companies. It would be better for those on Wall Street to beg forgiveness, and consent to stricter regulation so that the likelihood of this kind of event recurring is as low as it is possible.

The alternative is that Wall Street pushes its luck until it has none left. Now is not the time for folks to push their luck any further, because the distance between this backlash and a stronger one still may not be as far as some folks might pretend to think.