I was and still am against these bailouts, but everyone involved is not equally culpable for what has happened.
Do you know the situation of everyone who recieved a bonus? Do you know for a fact that every one of them fucked up and should not be paid?
I don't think a lot of workers deserve what they are paid - so can I threaten the kid at the McDonalds drive up? Can I not pay the part of my bill that represents his salary?
Everything is not black and white - many who recieved bonuses as part of their compensation probably earned the pay - just like the rest of us.
Those who caused this mess should not benifit from it, but those who just did their job deserve to be paid for their work - same as you.
Paid for their work is one thing, although, I'd sure be cutting some salaries if I owned the place. Getting paid extra (Bonuses) for shoddy if not downright criminal work, is in itself criminal and all those that OK'd these Bonuses should be fired immediately. Sounds to me like all those getting Bonuses were the ones that were culpable, those slimy middle managers that walk around all day looking over workers shoulders and intimidating them. Thry knew exactly what was going on. They were definently cognizant of what the bundling or insuring of toxic mortguages were. Say I'm the boss building a brick building, and I observe one or a few bricklayers leaving out a brick now and then, maybe the exact brick that will eventually bring down the building, do they deserve a Bonus? Exactly, they don't, they deserve to be fired. Where is the common sense to this conundrum?