This week, AIG gets a shout-out for issuing even more bonuses to its executives–sometimes people have to learn the hard way, twice. After public fury over the $165-million paid from bailout funds in March, AIG is back with the handouts. Next week, millions more will make its way around the C-Suite.

No, this isn’t Canadian news, but it’s an issue that Bay Street isn’t totally innocent of either (READ: Nortel). It’s certainly a worthwhile discussion.

Some say executives are entitled to these bonuses because it’s in their contracts, and cutting them out would set a negative precedent. Others say it was executives that drove these companies into the ground and don’t deserve to be compensated for performance. As a non-expert, I say (struggling) taxpayers didn’t write the contracts and therefore aren’t liable to fulfill said contracts.

Of course, the public is rightly enraged. When unemployment rates are increasing by the month, it’s not surprising there is little interest in paying for other peoples’ (undeserved) Ferraris/McMansions/French villas.

The payments AIG is set to make next week are a part of the $9-million in performance bonuses promised to about 40 senior managers in 2008.