I Wish I Knew How To Quit You

It would have been better written on a cake, but today's letter to the NYT is pretty powerful. Mr. DeSantis working in a profitable unit of A.I.G.-F.P. agreed to take a symbolic $1/year salary to stay on and work on the sale of his profitable commodities unit (pending to UBS). According to him Liddy made 3 reassurances on bonuses in his first month (proving he knew about them them) and even prepaid a portion in December. Reducing/returning the bonuses was never discussed until just before the congressional inquisition.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

Mr. DeSantis has generously agreed to donate his entire post-tax bonus (post-"real tax" value of $742k) once that actual amount has been determined. He admits to having had a long and successful career that enables him this luxury; most of his coworkers have not .

I wonder how the UAW feels about workers being paid $1 for a year's worth of 12 hour days. Maybe the organizers can descend on Wall Street once Card Check gets pushed through.

I hope those holding torches and pitchforks feel at least a twinge of shame.