And then say that we cannot afford education or investments in energy because we have already spent all our money buying bad securities from the banks, Wonks Anonymous remembers a friend from years ago who had an alcoholic/addict brother.

Most of the family time and a great deal of their money went into getting this poor unfortunate out of jail and various other trouble. We all felt sorry for him but, at the same time, he took a really long time, and most of his siblings college money to figure it out. Many of us learned to loathe him.

So maybe a bailout is the rational thing to do but do you know what? It still leaves Wonks Anonymous feeling like a chump.