$170 Billion to AIG alone. That's how much the US taxpayer has paid out so far to the giant insurer. Now everyone's up in arms about bonuses being paid out to AIG's failing execs. But as we've said before on this program, bonuses for the few are hardly the point.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote this weekend that the real scandal of AIG isn't just the billions in bailouts nor the 165 million in bonuses. "The scandal is that even at this late date, even in a new administration dedicated to doing it all differently, Americans still have so little say over what is happening with our money."

Sure enough. Even as President Barack Obama said Monday that he would 'pursue every single legal avenue to block' $165 million in bonuses to American International Group Inc. employees" the Wall Street Journal reports that, "hours later, administration officials said the payouts made Friday couldn't be extracted from their recipients without a legal fight that would cost the taxpayers even more."

For all the fear mongering about government taking over banks, the scandal we should have been watching was the banks' takeover of our government. 

Meanwhile the Chinese government, according to recent reports, is using the economic downturn to retrain workers, build infrastructure, and expand the capacity of people and regions who have been historically poor.

The real scandal, then, in no shortage of scandals, is while Washington blusters about bonuses and banks, there's almost no discussion about what other choices we could be making, and what today's choices will cost.