I think you should look into what actually happened with the bank bailouts. In the UK the government took ownership stakes in both RBS and HBOS, in the US the g

I think you should look into what actually happened with the bank bailouts. In the UK the government took ownership stakes in both RBS and HBOS, in the US the government took equity in AIG. The US government actually made $20Bn profit from that deal in the end. The money the US loaned to banks under TARP actually got paid back with interest, netting the US Gov a profit on that as well. These bailout programmes also came with executive pay restrictions. The regulations on bank stability since then are the reason why lots of banks are struggling to make money (they simply can't make money the ways they used to). I know that people wanted the bankers to suffer for the damage they caused. And yes, there was a complete failure to actually criminally or civilly pursue the people responsible. Yes that was bad. But the 2008 bailouts were actually incredibly effective, and wiping out shareholders would largely have just robbed pension funds.