That is a nice explanation.  I think it is ridiculous that (some) people see this bailout as socialism.  There are some similarities, but you can always find some hint of socialism in any government intervention.  Unfortunately, in a civilized society some intervention is necessary.  I can't remember who said it first, but "regulation of capital is regulation of capitalism, not socialism." 

I do think that the government could have let some of these banks fail, and there were some banks who would have been deserving of it.  Smaller banks could have picked up the slack, but it still would have required a ton of government money.  The smaller banks would have required more capital to expand their operations and that most likely would have just created different banks that were "too big to fail."

But, back to socialism.  Socialism refers to the "state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals."  Granted, when the state takes a large stock position in a company, it gets closer to socialism.  However, the government still doesn't control the administration or distribution. And, there has never been a greater divide between the upper and lower classes - the middle class is disappearing.  We are certainly a long way from the equality that socialism aims to achieve. 

So, we don't have socialism - we have more regulation, which is apparently much needed.  Some would argue we are on a slipper slope, but I'm not worried about waking up tomorrow and finding out that the government owns the business I have built.  I think some of the right-wing media and other organizations have been using this to scare us all and turn public sentiment against President Obama.  Nothing but political gamesmanship.  I'd much rather see both parties working together to actually do something good for the people.

And... this comes from someone in the middle class and slowly slipping farther down the class ladder.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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