You might overestimate how much the of that taxpayer money comes from the poor people who are suffering. Some of these bank executives we love to hate might pay more taxes in a year than the average american pays during a lifetime.

But if ones includes the inflation tax that they (Banks, etc.) directly benefit from by getting the fait funny money first before the rest of society and it’s results on everyone, this may not be true. There are more poor and middle class that have the inflation tax steal from them (for which most don’t understand the how of it) in addition to the direct tax that takes to support the preplanned central banking scheme that benefits the few. When you add to that the mal-investment which makes decisions skewed for the poor or middle class trying to get ahead, one may be able to make a even stronger case against the preplanned ordered centrally controlled economy and a better case for a more market based one with sound money.

No, I favour using money, from wherever it is available, to save all our skins.

Sure that makes sense, but many experts will tell you that purchasing all the bad paper will not save the banks.

We still get a depression AND we've spent 700 billion.

The better alternative is to pick a few winners, re-capitalize them, and let everyone else fail. That's both cheaper and more likely to succeed.