Old topic, but: The bailout was NOT socialist.

Sometimes, I think socialism in the American dialect of English simply means something bad that somehow involves government. But reality isn't so simple, and I must make this clear: The US government is not socialist for the way it handled the financial crisis.

Wikipedia has this to say about socialism:

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society. [...]

Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved.

The concept of socialism is somewhat hazy, but I think this much is true: Socialists are interested in preventing the concentration of wealth and power in small pockets of society.

Think about this bailout. Money was taken from the government's coffers, money which was given to the government by taxpayers, most of whom are lower- and middle-class. This money was taken and then given to the banks that had a shitload of money but ran into severe difficulties. I'll repeat in simple terms: Money was taken from the poor and given to the rich.

Last time I checked, taking from the poor and giving to the rich promotes greater inequality between the two groups. It concentrates the wealth and economic power into the small, rich pockets of society. True, the bailout did not accomplish this horrid feat through free-market means, but I don't think that's the critical criterion. I think that socialists don't criticize capitalism per se, but rather the negative side effect that wealth and power becomes unfairly concentrated under capitalism. Any system with the same side effect, whether economic or governmental, is surely just as bad to socialists.

The bailout wasn't capitalist, but it wasn't socialist either. The best description is that it was anti-socialist.

— Athelwulf