Why does the American taxpayer have to bail out these companies that don't know how to balance the checkbook ?

It's all based on shaky economic theory. If we don't break the rules of capitalism and clean up the mess of the irresponsible jerks we're going to suffer very badly from their incredibly irrational and selfish behavior.

If we had REAL capitalism, no way would there be ANY bailouts. For example, the dying US car companies would go bankrupt, as they darned well should. They deserve to, being honest. They made nearly no response to the needs of customers and to this day continue to pretend 24 miles per gallon is something to brag about. They knew back in the mid 1970s that 40 miles a gallon was what a huge portion of the public wanted. The Japanese and other foreign manufacturers accomplished the goal, so DUH, the US automakers were left in the ditch, as they should be. And we're going to bail them out. Just watch. And it will all be to save the jobs of citizens who sadly are working for bad companies with bad management. The winners here are obviously the IRRESPONSIBLE. Don't expect it to make sense. It's not capitalism. It's the same old Good Old Boy system for making a buck the old fashioned way. Schmoozing.

Because the government didn't enforce anti-trust violations very well. As a result, the corporations got SO big that if they collapsed entirely, so would the US economy.

I guess becasue there would be huge job losses and it would hurt the economy if they didn't bail them out, but I agree, something is just not right about it.

Sadly - it's the same in the UK too !

If we didn't have to bail out the rogue companies - our tax levels would be MUCH lower !

i dont get it either , i own a small business and if it fails i would have to send myself packing. no safety net here!