I own part of the largest insurer in the world. In fact, every taxpayer in America can stand up a little taller and walk a little prouder because we’re all taking a larger and larger share in the socialization of well-known mainstays of the global financial system. The U.S. government has decided to take control of insurance giant American International Group to the tune of an $80 billion loan, and has just revealed a $700 billion price tag to its most recent undertaking of rescuing the troubled American financial system.

Hear that? That’s the sound of wealthy Americans not complaining that they pay higher taxes. After all, when your stock portfolio is being buoyed by taxpayer bailouts, you can’t complain about being in that higher tax bracket.

You could make the argument that in a strange and twisted way, President George W. Bush has become in the past few months a sort of CEO of various American financial giants, and the U.S. government a sort of super holding company that doles out cash, loans and arranges deals to ensure its subsidiaries — privately owned and traded U.S. businesses — are financially stable.

The aforementioned $700 billion taxpayer bailout of the financial market is the largest government intervention in markets since the Great Depression. The plan is designed at its most basic level to increase the availability of loans, a concept that is about as important to “Main Street” as it is to “Wall Street.”

But amid all these massive amounts of taxpayer dollars being thrown around, there’s a glaring omission: measures aimed directly at the taxpayer.  What if the Bush administration had done a half and half:  $350 billion to create a homeowners fund to assist families who’d like to buy a house or find themselves unable to pay their mortgages, a small business fund to assist American small businesses owners hit hard by the economic downturn, an economic stimulus similar to the one Americans received earlier this year, a federal or state level retraining program for the aging American labor force, and jobs, jobs, jobs. The other $350 billion could be spent on liquidating the bad loans that plague the financial system.

This financial crisis has revealed a number of alarming realities — most prominently the U.S. financial system’s dire need of expanded regulation. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said it best when he declared,  “if institutions need to be rescued like banks, they should be regulated like banks.” If the American taxpayer is going to be leaned on to come to the rescue of a system that has behaved like a mischievous pre-teen, then it deserves to be monitored and treated like one.

First things first — the Bush tax cuts have got to go. Our government is spending federal tax dollars like Sarah Palin when she was governor of Wasilla. With future administrations and generations trying to find a way to pay for this bailout, Clinton-era tax policy may be beneficial. With the government this involved in our economy, it would be best served if its own balance sheet was in order.

Second, bail out the American taxpayer, not just Wall Street. The aforementioned initiatives would be a welcome start. Third, we need a Congress and a president whose tax policy illustrates that America needs to repay its debts, but protect its burdened middle class. We’re being asked to subsidize the costly mistakes of people who are given millions of dollars after leaving companies decimated.  I’d say we earned it.

I’m not saying I want the world; I’m just saying if you are going to ask me to save it, I’d better get a pat on the back when it’s all said and done.

Otherwise, let the businesses fail, the loans default, the unwise decisions receive their comeuppance and the cyclical nature of the economy work its magic. I’m just about the biggest proponent of capitalism who’s leaning Democratic this election cycle, but capitalism, which, by my definition, owes its efficiency and efficacy to the greed of its adherents, is also prone to colossal face plants due to the very same. This is one of those times. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again. Stop giving Wall Street the benefit of the doubt, and start giving it to Main Street.

Gerald Cox ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in economics.