History repeats itself

George Santayana, philosopher and poet said "those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it." He must have been prophetic as well 'cause we do it throughout history - in our personal lives and aggregately. I've previously communicated that I think the economic stimulus package does nothing to stem the real problem of furious spending and greed. Now, bank bailouts are the mode du jour. In the early 1930's FDR called for restraint and reorganization of the banking system because it was under threat of collapse due, you guessed it, to speculation and greed. Here we are exactly 75 years later with deja vu all over again. I know we want to avert catastrophe and we can't have banks failing but they took the risks, why shouldn't they have to pay the consequences for making poor decisions? Was anybody balking all the years it went the other way? I think it diminishes the real plight of a select number who are truly struggling to meet financial obligations. Government bail outs send the wrong message. Whatever happened to survival of the fittest?