Big Corporations versus Big Government

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Some in Congress are roaring about a sales conference held by AIG at Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak in Phoenix Arizona last week. This happened at about the same time AIG was granted additional “bail out” money by the government.

View the AP Story


In its defense AIG says that the conference was for independent sales representatives - making them aware of AIG and other financial instruments and was vital to the company’s survival.


But that really doesn’t matter to the “Joe the plumbers” or “Jane the Walmart employees” out there, because the situation looks as if taxpayers money is being funneled by government through the company in order to provide expensive resort junkets for big business.


And it doesn’t matter to big government either, because the Democrat side can use what the incident looks like as just one more example of how the Republican side is in the pockets of those rich and wealthy CEOs.


As a boss of mine used to say: “Its all about optics.” And the current environment is that somehow all big businesses and their CEOs are responsible for the entire economic mess we are in. Just think of the last tirade you heard about “Big Oil.” Pretty soon Congress will come after “Big Cola” and “Big Software.”


Maybe it isn’t so much about sharing the wealth as it is showing a decent respect for sharing the pain.