Shouldn't We All Be So Lucky?

So when a company gets so powerful that it can literally leverage the U.S. government into bailing it out, don't we have problems? From Reuters.com:

American International Group Inc had warned of turmoil around the globe if the government allowed the insurer to fail when it appealed to U.S. regulators for its latest rescue...

AIG needed immediate help from the Federal Reserve and Treasury to prevent a "catastrophic" collapse that would be worse for markets than the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, according to the 21-page draft AIG presentation circulated among federal and state regulators, the agency reported...

AIG warned its failure could cripple money-market funds, force European banks to raise capital, cause competing life insurers to fail and wipe out the taxpayers' stake in the firm, the agency said.

I'm no economist, but couldn't demographers and financial wizards who track the country's fiscal health see this coming? Prevention, as opposed to intervention, anyone?

And while the global implications of not bailing AIG out may have been catastrophic, it's not as if our country dishing out more money to save companies does not have deleterious ramifications in its own right.

Borrowing so much money from China puts us in quite the subservient position. Our national debt as a whole, and specifically that to China, has mushroomed to such an extent that we don't have the power to call them on their own human rights violations.

Ugh, I've written enough on this already. It's too early on a Monday morning to gripe about this anymore right now.