Is Wall Street worthy of being bailed out?

Maybe I don't know much about economics or fancy mortgage backed securities, but I do know that in many neighborhoods around this city there is an epidemic of foreclosed houses. Some communities, some cities have been really hobbled by foreclosures. Many of them were due to unscrupulous loans, but a great deal were due to things that were happening in the country.


Businesses have been closing, leaving employees laid off, rising prices have made it ever more difficult to make ends meet, and things have been just generally tight all over.


So, why didn't Wall Street know this?


How could anyone who works on Wall Street, whose business it is to have their finger on the pulse of what is happening, miss all of the glaring For Sale signs all over America?

So, Wall Street gets to recklessly run the country into the ground and they get rescued. What is to make them any more responsible? How do we know that others will be more responsible than AIG? How do we know there won't be a $442,000 jaunt at taxpayers' expense?

How will we get out of this? I just cried when I looked at my retirement statement, and I am not close to being ready for retirement, but I would like to not lose everything I have gained due to cavalier and madcap decisions.