Today we find this story in the NYT:
Seeking to avoid the public furor that erupted last spring, the American International Group has been quietly seeking approval from the new federal compensation czar to pay a total of $2.4 million dollars in bonuses to dozens of its senior executives.
Officials at the embattled insurance company, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer money, have sought meetings with, the pay czar, to review the payments for 40 of its highest ranking employees, according to individuals briefed on the matter.
Mr. Feinberg has been tasked with approving the pay for the 100 highest paid employees, but he also can also weigh in on other matters if a company requests.
And it brought this these lines, from Chapter 10 ("Rifling Trunks") of Chuang Tzu to mind:
If one is to guard and take precautions against thieves who rifle trunks, ransack bags, and break open boxes, then he must bind with cords and ropes and make fast with locks and hasps. This the ordinary world calls wisdom. But if a great thief comes along, he will shoulder the boxes, hoist up the trunks, sling the bags over his back, and dash off, only worrying that the cords and ropes, the locks and hasps are not fastened tightly enough. In that case, the man who earlier was called wise was in fact only piling up goods for the benefit of a great thief.
AIG thus plays the role of the "great thief," and Feinberg, it would appear, stands in the for the many, many "wise" people who enabled the great thief.
Chuang Tzu is quite perceptive about these sorts of things. He recognizes that power often defines practical morality in the human realm:
He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord...
Perhaps that is why Chuang Tzu tended to avoid politics....
You make me want to read this Chuang tzu.
Posted by: Vincent | July 19, 2009 at 03:43 PM