Well, that's certainly fair enough. But if AIG had collapsed, we might be employing a barter system for rabbit pelts right now. Sounds crazy, I know, but if there's ever a global run on banks, the results won't be pretty. And having 10 banks possess 77% of the market can't be good, because it means that every one of those banks is now AIG.
Thanks to the bailouts we had a rough recession that is leading to a recovery in fits and starts. Not to bad, all things considered.
Our country, at almost every level, needs more discipline. The debt and obesity epidemics are symptoms of the same problem. No one wants to tackle the bull by the horns and just say "Enough already." Everyone would rather look to someone else to solve their problems for them: government health care, government bailouts, government disaster relief, government unemployment subsidies for sustained unemployment, etc., etc., etc.
We're living on borrowed money and, I fear, time. We're trillions of dollars in the hole, and there's no plan to pay it back. Somehow getting farther in the hole doesn't seem like the smartest idea to me.
If it hurts a little (or even a lot), let it hurt. Better to sweat on the treadmill than die suddenly (and prematurely) in a massive heart attack. If we borrow more and more money so that it never has to hurt at all, why would anyone ever change?