So this week the federal government agreed to bail out AIG. The various networks have talked about the billions that it is going to cost to do this. Frankly I am a bit pissed. I don’t mind paying for the war, but I do mind paying for someone else’s greed. This is a debt that we will all be effected by.
In Stowe, the town just south of here, AIG built a huge luxury hotel on the side of the the Green Mt. forest. The grand opening was this past summer and I went up to mouse around. Marble floors, exotic woods, staff that most likely didn’t come from Vermont. http://www.stowemountainlodge.com/stowe-photo-gallery.php For one night, the rooms start at $399.00 and then go up to $1629.00 for a 10th floor, three bedroom suite.
The hotel took a couple of years to build, and most likely billions. This hotel has yet to have a full season and so I doubt that it is a money maker for AIG. It is an example of the greed that the uppity ups have had in the business. I wonder how long it will take for the billion dollar hotel to turn a profit. Even at the high room rates, it would take decades of full to capacity bookings to break even. The hotel is a tax shelter for the investment firm. What a waste of the natural beauty of the green mountains. What a waste of the materials used.
I am pissed that the federal government is bailing this business out. People behaving badly should not get a free pass when they mess up. Or when the greed they have over comes a basic moral concept of doing no harm.
I get that jobs would be lost and that the financial world would do a bit of a spin, but after all, no one said that at birth we are automatically entitled to retirement accounts. No one forces us to have a 401K. We are forced to contribute to Social Security, as a safety net, but that is the extent of it. What we create for our retirement is free for each of us to do. And we should be accountable for our own choices including the risk we take when we put our money into the hands of investors so that they can make a buck for us.
We have a retirement account and leave it up to the hospital to invest for us. We look at the statements every quarter to see how we are doing, but generally have apathy towards the investments. I think that this is pretty typical for most Americans. Someone else is doing this for us, and it seems to be fine, so I won’t bother to go much deeper.
For years I have told the kids that I will live with one of them when I am older. They have gotten used to this idea (brainwashing 101) and so Emilie has said that she will have a farm and I can live in a cabin at the edge of it. Elizabeth has said that she will pay mom support and will visit me a couple of times a year. I will sell all of my stuff at some point and give it all to the kids so that they can care for me when I can’t do it for myself. Simple plan. If something happens to the kids, I am hosed.
The investment is having a good relationship with your family. No one else is going to do it for me, I have to create it and maintain it myself. I don’t count on the government for bailing me out if the kids get mad at me and won’t talk to me.
