I want your money

In an article with the above title, The Economist says we should support the pending bail out of the US Financial System.  Two reasons: it could work, and if so it would prevent a “financial collapse and a deep recession spilling across the world.”

But the article also puts the amount in another context “Spending a sum of money that could buy you a war in Iraq should not come easily.” In an extrapolation I’m sure the Economist would not have made  that thought offers a more practical justification: bailing out Americans who face financial ruin has a more direct impact on the quality of their lives and freedom, than say spending the money to invade some other country on unfounded rationale.