Maybe the companies in question should save money instead of expecting the American people to bail them out in these situations. Every single financial crisis in recent memory has the same core group of companies not saving money and needing the government's help. Yet when it comes time to help individuals in need the government suddenly wants means testing and byzantine rules around who gets the help and how quickly it can come. Trickle down economics don't work. They just coat the economy in varnish.
If every business had to consider every possible risk scenario (WW3?) then nothing would function. We need a kind of 'insurance' that nobody else will provide. The government is well-positioned to do that if they do it responsibly.
These companies are generally not getting free money - they are getting loans, or in some cases the gov. is getting equity. The government could have actually made a profit were they to have held their auto-bailouts a little longer.
The reality is, Auto Companies cannot prepare for an 'apocalypse' in an adjacent, much bigger market - banking.
Credit is the right thing to do to keep that system going, again the government did loose a few billion, but it was small in the grand scheme, moreover, they should have broken even.
There are quite a few social programs provided by gov for individuals, moreover, those are 'freebies'. The gov is not taking a chunk of 'ownership of you' and they're generally not extending loans.
Banks also paid back their loans, the sneaky thing there was when the Fed allowed banks to dump mortgages on them at face value - which was a 'bailout' of banks and home-owners.
Of all the things that drive unfairness and inequality - these are not them. These are generally good bits of intervention.
Low-interest rates that drive massive home inflation is a primary driver of inequality. Lack of some kind of socialized medicine. Lack of reasonable healthcare regulations. Garbage public schools in some areas. Prison Industrial Complex. These are much more obvious areas for reform.
