Bite me!

whether he knew it or not.

Maybe people should look a little more closely at who they work for and what their parent corporations are doing?

Now all we gotta do is shame the others into doing the same. Sure he passed the buck all the way out the door but at least we got our money back.

Cry me a river: this shouldn't convince anybody. My favorite part is the "Noble me, I agreed to work for a dollar...plus a million."

So what if he wasn't directly responsible--go down with the ship like everyone else who works for a company. Blame your criminal colleage Cassano, not the taxpayer's ire. Do autoworkers get partitioned from sacrifice for management's mistakes?

These guys just don't get what everyone sees: the company was insolvent. The bonus money should have been churned back into the worthless firm to cover a little of their debts--if we're expected to cover the rest. Why should it be shielded in a way it wouldn't be if you worked for a shoe store that went under? He wants to cash in becuse there was no regulatory authority to throw them into bankruptcy court? It's too bad he was lied to--but that's the point: they should have cut the bonus and managed the wind-down to shepherd the public money.

Fuck him

What a disgusting whiner.

He was asked to serve for $1 a year?

Hell, I'd serve for a dollar a year, too. If I knew I was going to get $700k in taxpayer money at the end of it.

What a working class hero!

Welcome to the barricades, comrade!

He isn't being paid so he's quitting. Fine.

Many American workers are being punished not for their own personal conduct, but for the misconduct of their employers. By rights every person at AIG should lose their job. The company has failed and if wasn't for the largesse of the American government the company would be in ruins.

I feel more sorry for the factory workers whose factories sit idle while their jobs are moved overseas. I feel more sorry for the renter who has been rendered homeless since their landlord was not paying their mortgage. I feel more sorry for the family without health insurance who has to go bankrupt to pay for the medical needs of their children.

Jake DeSantis was well paid for his work at AIG until the company failed. He received good benefits. It appears that he is in the top 1% of American households in terms of income. At least he goes home to a nice house and family and a personal fortune which he can use to ponder his next move.

Mr. DeSantis failed to discuss how AIG was so deep in the red that the United States government had to bail it out with hundreds of billions of dollars, and that his bonus would have come from those borrowed funds. That's like me giving myself a bonus by taking out a cash transfer from my neighbor's credit card.

Bonus, shmonus, pal. Your company is living on money borrowed from the taxpayers, so you're lucky to keep your job, much less get a bonus. The facts are, 1) these Wall Street bonuses are larger than most people's annual salaries, including people who work far harder than Wall Street's desk jockeys, and 2) most people don't get bonuses.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to sharpen the tines on my pitchfork.

AIG was bankrupt and taken over in all but name by the government. As a private company, it would have vanished and no retention bonuses would have been paid. This guy's division may well have been sold off but the odds his job would have survived in this economy during a massive fire sale and consolidation are unknowable. Maybe, just maybe under bankruptcy protection his job would have continued and maybe, just maybe the court would have allowed bonuses, but those would have been subject to court order - in this climate - so I doubt he would have received anything.

I'm sorry that this guy's been tarred by the actions of others - particularly those in London (who aren't returning bonuses, btw). But those are the breaks.

AIG executive "does not disagree" that he and his like were overpaid.

It's a bloody miracle

You know, I'd feel sorry for you, but I'm too busy trying to keep my own head above water in the wake of what your former employer helped do to our economy.

So I won't be shedding any tears over your plight, sad to say. You may not have been directly responsible, but you were part of the organization that helped bring this about. To now attempt to play the "innocent victim" card reminds me of all those Germans who had no idea what the Nazis were up to.

This reads like an attempt by AIG execs to save their bonus money and confirm their so called fear of losing their prized workers if the bonuses aren't paid. This is NYtimes and AIG manipulation for sure.

How many time does he mention that hes donating the money? Oh hes a good guy working for a firm that happened to be doing very bad things. He feels betrayed by his boss. Oh man I cry nothing for this guy.

I say go to hell. Auto workers bonus and payments get cut regularly from what they have been promised but they can't afford to resign.

This guy is one of the privileged class who can afford to resign, who can get his voice/agenda printed in a major newspaper. Who probably has a truckload of money saved. Hey if you did such a great job at your company how come its dead?

What did I do to deserve the 40% haircut my investments have taken?

I guess you all missed the part that these guys were getting paid a $1 while they stayed and worked 12 hr days. They were promised a bonus for staying a doing it. Many turned down other jobs based on the promise. The people getting the bonus did not work in the division that lost all the money.

The press and whiny public have over blown this situation, and none of the people complaining could ever fill these jobs.

Most of the letter was edited out of this article. Go to the NYT and read the entire letter.