Hello Mr. Stiglitz

From Mr. Stiglitz:

What the Obama administration is doing is far worse than nationalization: it is ersatz capitalism, the privatizing of gains and the socializing of losses. It is a “partnership” in which one partner robs the other. And such partnerships — with the private sector in control — have perverse incentives, worse even than the ones that got us into the
mess.

Alright, I am not yet qualified to comment on the merits of the rescue plan. But I have to disagree with him on an axiomatic level--- isn't public cost / private gain a general result of many government policies? When we sponsor or subsidize the education of the student from a poor family, aren't we taking money from wealthier families and transferring it to a poor family, with private gains (increased personal income)? But we do it, not simply on the basis of charitable principles, but because we expect public gains.

And one more thing.

Private gains? Pensions, 401k and individuals that form the public are heavily invested in the large firms receiving bailouts. Public losses? Taxpayers are skewed towards the rich in terms of disproportion of taxes paid, thanks to progessivity.

Given this, is it not deceptively simple to deploy the "private gain" vs. "taxpaying public" loss argument? It is simply not as clear a dichotomy as that.