[yellowapple]

I'd say actual people should by all means be bailed out. Anything less just punishes poor people for being poor. I'd be willing to extend that to small businesses, too, for similar reasons.

Multi-million (let alone billion) dollar corporations, however, are not in a comparable situation, and re: them I fully agree with your take. If they accept bailouts, they should be prepared to also accept "We the People" democratically controlling them as publicly-owned cooperatives; the moment you depend on taxpayer money for your existence is the moment you forfeit the "right" to anything but taxpayer ownership.