Working in the US - Bonus or no bonus?

In the last couple of months, I have learned more and more that this country has a transaction based way-of-working. Everything goes for a price, everything is a transaction. If you are negotiating about your salary for a new job or asking your handyman to hang your blinds in the living room. And that's how it works for the bonus, too, it's part of the deal.

This is the time for most bankers to have received their bonuses paid out by their banks, currently heavily under pressure and often bailed out one way or the other.
In the Netherlands, a bonus paid and working for a bank means you are being scutinized by the public opinion. At least, that's what I understand from reading articles about, for example, Dutch Finance Minister Bos who had to explain to the parliament why Dutch banks are paying bonuses while they are receiving tax payers money.
In the US, getting a bonus and working for a bank means you are seen as sucessfull, because (1) you are still working for a bank in these difficult times and (2) your performance was good enough to receive the recognition for it!
As the Netherlands and the US have different working cultures and compensation systems, don't forget in the US you can get laid off every day without getting paid anything and you don't receive a legal holiday allowance or 13th month payment, I think that you can't just say in general that bonuses should or should not be paid.

And trust me, in most banks bonus amounts have been slashed according to reality. Here in NY that's becoming crystal clear as the 'real economy' like cab drivers, retailers, restaurants and even hair dressers, suffer from those measures. Let's see when we start spending again...

A small disclaimer from my side: I state the above, apart from the excessive multimillion dollar bonuses that were paid in the recent past, which have completely lost touch with reality to my opinion.