Blog of Bling #4- I'm no economist...

and I'm certainly no apologist for the government policies that have left us with this crisis, but I'm not sure if this bail-out is the right thing to do. From what I understand, which may not be entirely accurate (please post and let me know), these risk taking wall-street companies lent a bunch of money and then when the loanees couldn't pay them back, the companies had no plan B.In this situation, I would imagine that the risk-taking companies share value would drop like a rock and then some other (obviously more responsible) company will come along and acquire the troubled company. Survival of the fittest, responsible companies survive, risk taking companies die a red figure death.Now obviously that leaves all the middle class people that were spending all of their paychecks and now can't afford their house payment when the price of gas, loaf of bread, etc went up a few dollars a pop. I am more sympathetic for these people and these are the people that the politicians are vying for votes from. Would it not be more effecient (both economically and politically) to use a portion of the 700 billion and pay off some of these peoples loans? Or at least give them seriously significant tax breaks so that they could pay it off themselves? This seems more economically and even politically efficient.I'm quite confused for one of the few times in my life, so I'd like to hear other peoples thoughts on this one...especially if my reasoning isn't exactly right. I really don't know whether I agree with this whole thing or not, so I'd really like to hear other people's takes on the whole thing. Being the resident American I'm getting asked these questions all day long and I honestly have no idea what to say!Anyway, on a lighter note, I'm waiting on pictures for a more Bling-like blog entry to come very soon. Keep posted!