the government, large corporations and banks are exactly what employ and sustain the vast majority of the ninety nine percent, so it's very important for those institutions to survive and remain sustainable during a recession.
That's the party line we get fed, sure, but it's bullshit. Bailing out corporations rewards them for unsustainable, unethical behavior and gives no incentive for change. That's not in average people's interests. Sure there are periods of instability when a large organization fails, but in the long run it's worth it. Large organizations are stretching the rules as far as they can already, getting tax breaks, employing people for 39 instead of 40 hours so that they don't have to provide health insurance, increasing executive pay so that the discrepancy between CEO and average-worker pay is larger than its ever been. Why the everloving fuck, other than sheer fear, would it be in my interests to bail out such bloated, inefficient, and cheating organizations?
I got ninja'd by Pyraxis here but she's right. Corporations like
Satan's Five and Dime Walmart have been hell on the American worker, driving down wages, forcing their workers to depend on government assistance (Yes, we taxpayers are effectively paying the wages of Walmart employees) and cutting benefits.
Getting to the Banks, that's a whole other scam that they played on the American people. Goldman Sachs had to pay record fines to the US Gov for insider trading violations. The subprime loan scandal was just a con game that the top investment bankers made TRILLIONS of dollars of profit from.