“They contracted loans to people who couldn’t afford to repay them, to make more money for themselves. They then sold those risky loans to other companies without telling them they were risky, again to make more money for themselves. You’re technically correct (the best kind of correct, right?) that the bankers were just looking out for themselves and they don’t owe anything to the rest of us, but… that doesn’t mean we have to like them for being selfish greedy lying profiteers. A shark is just doing what comes naturally when it chews up a surfer, but we still don’t like it. And, how many other business get special treatment from their countries’ governments when they make bad business decisions? Does McDonald’s or Walmart get multi-billion dollar payouts when they make bad business decisions and lose money? No. Only the banks. Because banks fulfil a crucial function in our modern society. And, governments simply can not let banks collapse. As you say, governments have “a duty to serve the people and do what is actually good for the country” – which includes not allowing the country’s financial system to collapse. So, bankers made business decisions to profit unfairly from people who couldn’t afford to repay loans, to profit from lying to investment funds they on-sold the loans to, and then expected special treatment just because they’re banks and the government can’t afford to let them collapse. That’s why we dislike them: they cheated, they lied, and they got away with it just because the governments couldn’t afford to let banks collapse. If McDonald’s or Walmart had done the same thing, they would have had to feel the consequences of their actions: major losses, drops in share prices, reduced dividends to the directors and executives, possible terminations of the people responsible. However, the banks cheated people and got away with it just because they’re banks.”
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