Stop drinking the koolaid. AIG got a bailout because of their donations to key members of the government:
It was the set up for an analogy, jackass.
Besides, with AIG removed from the picture, the various contrived securities at the core of this would have even less basis for existence, all the companies tied up in this would be forced to pay out on their debts and financial institutions worldwide would be fucked royally, whether they bought these securities or not.
Yes AIG was a central player in fucking this up, but the method they used tied the whole fucking world to their sinking ship.
This is a global fucking market. You and the rest of your idiot isolationist brethren have yet to figure out that we Americans are no longer on an island with administrative duties for the world (and never should have been) - we have consequences that follow our actions.
So. While AIG does not deserve this for any reason, they still have a shitstorm to clean up. People say not to give the clean up responsibilities to the people who fucked it up. I say we treat them like the overgrown children they are and make them clean up their own mess - if we don't, the next companies to do this shit will feel completely invincible.
AIG's donations have zero to do with this. Why would we pay them back for screwing up? The total they donated ($330446) is a mere 0.000003888% of the $85 billion they received from the Fed. There is no way the donations were the root impetus for the rescue.
I know I want to give someone just over 257228 times the amount of money they give me, especially when they fuck up.<sarcasm
Nothing you said contradicts anything I said.
You're right, nothing I said directly contradicts anything you said. Taken in the context of the parent comment, though, you are taking a contradictory position. The spirit of this argument is that sections of freeway between cities could be used as tollways which restricts travel. You're just saying that intra-city tollways exist on interstate freeway sections, which has nothing to do with the argument at hand.
Check your arguments. Do they make sense in the context of the problem at hand? If not, DON'T USE THEM. Instead, try making an argument that is clearly in the scope of the conversation.
Fast, cheap, good: pick two.