AIG Redux

Believe it or not, I used to be important in the world of finance and high tech. I loved showing up for a board meeting at Goldman or one of the upper crusty venture capital companies in shorts, Birkenstocks, tie dye and a pony tail. That bunch was an incredibly entitled group of people. They took their insane paychecks and plush surroundings as a birthright. To hear about the tone deafness of the folks at AIG is just a walk down memory lane.

I’ve got no problem with wealth, or big payouts. It’s just that they ought to reflect actual value created or social good or something more tangible than a credit default swap. My money came from growing a business, hiring thousands and providing internet access for millions. Hard to argue that wasn’t worth a few million bucks. But the money scramblers? No, no, no.

Anyway, I have such memories of these guys, even a few literal billionaires, and how they treated immense paychecks and actual dynastic wealth; like a right owed them. It’s not hard to imagine how the kids at Goldman, Citi, AIG and the other bailouts could be so blind to the outrage, since their peers and neighbors were the same entitled pricks. I don’t think I ever met a Democrat among them, and they sure laughed at the religious right that made their party the dominant player for most of the last few decades.

A new friend recently asked how I would describe the human race in one word. I said, “Flawed.” These people certainly show that. And since many of them were and remain friends, I can understand some of where they come from. The prep schools and Ivy League colleges they attend set them up to feel superior. The investment banks and venture capital firms feed the desire to be crazy wealthy as if it’s the normal course of things.

So now, it’s a little shocking to see them coming out of the bubble and blinking in the unaccustomed sunlight. It will take them a while to get their bearings, and oh, what an adjustment that will be. Michael Lewis in “Liar’s Poker” in the early eighties wrote what he thought would be a call to arms about the silly excesses on Wall Street, like paying an investment bank CEO an absurd $2 million a year. How crazy is that? The public will never stand for it! The amazing thing is that he was off by nearly three decades.

It’s hard to have a lot of pity for the formerly fabulously well to do. Ironically, there was a huge amount of social pressure to spend like you made even more than the insane pile you did, so between real estate values plummeting and the stock market tanking, I believe a lot of these guys will go from private jets to the Hamptons to really not great circumstances. Without 7 figure bonuses, the second house definitely goes, the private jet is gone, primary residence in doubt, later to the Porsche, the trophy wife takes a hike and hello to $50,000 a year as a junior bank manager in Hoboken. Hard to feel sorry, but what a flight path that must be to live through.

The reality of the hard struggle for most Americans to provide food, shelter and health care to their families is evident to most of us. There has been an “elite” (Republicans stole and twisted the term) living high above the fray, pulling down small fortunes while the bulk of the population struggled to hold it together. I’m sure they would be surprised at the depth and intensity of the animosity their fellow citizens have for them, but they really need to get used to the idea and fast.

Class war is an ugly thing (another stolen and twisted phrase) but you just can’t keep this shit up in broad daylight and not get fed to an angry mob.