I like to keep up with what is going on in the country, and I heard last week, as I am sure most of you did, about the bonus payments paid to employees of AIG. I was infuriated that these people received bonus payments, some upward of five million dollars. I do not feel that, regardless of what the contract they signed says, they should get anything other then their wages for work performed. The news said that the purpose of the bonus payments was for "employee retention". Where are these people going to go, if they decided to quit because they did not get their payments? I don't see a whole lot of jobs out there.

I used to work in a small plastic injection molding factory. We manufactured a lot of auto parts, mainly for Chrysler and Ford. I worked there for six years, until, due to the slowdown in new car sales, my plant shut down, and I got laid off. The same story is true for a great many people who lost thier jobs, some with much more time invested with a company then my six years. If it were up to me, I would much rather be working at this moment then sitting here in front of my computer, as I am sure some of you who read this feel. I am not going to try and assign blame as to the reasons I lost my job, that would be foolish and inaccurate. The economic situation we face today is far too great to try and point a finger in one direction, but it infuriates me that the people who contributed to this mess are the ones who are getting paid a bonus to stay on the job, while a great many of us have no job.