AIG executives don’t live in the real world

Brent Alverson, Las Vegas

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

As it has been said before, capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.

Two former executives of American International Group, Robert Willumstad and Martin Sullivan, groveled in government witness chairs recently as they tried to justify to lawmakers their actions, pay practices and outsized spending patterns, which continued even after their company received an $85 billion lifeline from the government.

It was a sickening spectacle to observe.

During the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, it came out that the company’s top sales agents were recently treated to a weeklong retreat at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. The company’s public relations director explained that the event had been scheduled last year.

Apparently, no one had the authority to cancel the celebratory festivities, even though the financial health of AIG has been deteriorating drastically since 2007. The $442,000 expense for the week, which included $150,000 for food and $23,000 in spa charges, was unconscionable.

No doubt Mr. Willumstad and Mr. Sullivan will both walk away from the debacle of their company’s decline multimillionaires, leaving the mess for others to clean up. People of their ilk always do.

If I don’t pay my rent, I get evicted. If I don’t make my car payment, it gets repossessed. If these two men screw up, there’s a safety net waiting to catch them. Meanwhile, I’ll get up in the morning and go to work like the rest of the saps out there.