Contrary to the establishment propaganda, government bailouts did not, do not and will not save the financial system. The real effect of a government bailout on the financial system is to create inflation. The real effect of allowing companies to go bankrupt is deflationary.
The winners in a government bailout are people that are up to their eyeballs in debt. Their debt is now cheaper in real dollar terms. The losers in the bailout are people that are on fixed incomes. Their grocery costs are now higher in real dollar terms.
Another loser in a government bailout is the People. In the case of AIG, the holders of credit default swaps stood to lose the most. Bailing out AIG improves the price of these securities.
Many people have investments. The corporate propagandists try to sell the notion that the people will be hurt by the loss on their investments if these companies are not bailed out. Of course, everyone would be hurt to some extent by these investment losses, but the people that would lose by far the most are the rich wall street investment types.
The People in general will lose far more in the costs due to inflation and higher prices at the grocery store than their relatively piddling investment losses.