In the letter AIG's Liddy sent to Geitner concerning AIG's payment of bonuses, he mentions that 25 of the highest payed AIGFP contract employees were voluntarily working for $1 for the remainder of 2009 (pg 2 paragraph 2).  One presumes Liddy sees this as a sign of good faith in working towards repayment of the taxpayer infusion into their company.  A few months back, an automaker exec made the same magnanimous gesture. 

To me this is a demonstration of how bloated the system is and how overpayed they are.   Now they're rubbing it in our faces and patting themselves on the back for their noble sacrifice.  

This is no sacrifice for them;  Very few if any people in the middle-class could ever afford to work for $1 no matter how much they wished to help their company or country.  At best they would be unable to retire at any reasonable age, and at worst, they and their families would be homeless and starving.  Middle-class folks don't need big retention bonuses: the thing that keeps them coming back is that they like food and shelter and hope one day to be able to retire for a few years before they die.

I don't think any of these banking execs are risking living on the street or even a substantial change in their material standard of living.  This is an empty gesture compared to folks whose livelihoods are threatened and who are trying to figure out how to put food on the table. 

An industry with margins like this seems a tad inefficient.  An inefficiency which the "market" should cure one way or another.