Your tax dollars at work

So here it comes, the big bailout, the monster cash extravaganza, brought to you by your tax dollars. The US government looks like it's on the verge of buying up 1000 billion USD of bad debt (that's right 1000 BILLION) from the various fools who brought you the subprime crisis.

I do not deny that something must be done to prevent the US, and consequently the world's, economy from going into a further tailspin. I won't even begrudge GWB for taking credit for 'fixing' a crisis entirely of his own making. I do however, have a question.

I'd like to know where all of the private jets, the mansions, the yachts, the wine collections, and the barrels of champagne are going to go. What's going to happen to the private islands and the racehorses? You know, those that were amassed by the deserving people who ran Bearn Stearns, AIG, etc...

Those people, we were told, were making absurd amounts of money because they were creating an absurd amount of wealth that all of us could enjoy. They were making credit available to all of us, and that kept the world economy humming. For this, they were paid billions (collectively, over the last 10 years, that is). It's called trickle down economics, to use a dated term.

Today, you, me, and your grandmother, are being asked to help bail these people out. So I repeat my question with a slight twist: can I get a timeshare on that private island? what about a few hours in that jet? I might even settle for a bottle of 1992 Dom Perignon, if there's any left.