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The government took 79.9% of AIG in that bailout - which was the biggest of the "too big to fail" bailouts from the past. People seem to forget that the owners of these companies that were bailed out got almost completely wiped out and instead focus on management compensation (which famously stayed high).

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One challenge with the government taking large ownership in private companies is that it creates an opportunity to offload the ownership later, and that offloading might happen during a different presidential administration from the one that acquired it, and the offloading process can also be an opportunity to enrich someone else.

One example that comes to mind is the current Fannie Freddie Mac.

That's an over simplification. AIG was bailed out. And it's investors were wiped out. But AIG owed a huge amount of money to banks and investment firms that had enormous benefit from the bail out. Those are the people who paid no price.

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