When a company gets bailed out with taxpayer money, why is it not owned by the public now?

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I get why a bailout can be important for the economy but I don’t get why the company just gets the money. Seems like tax payer money essentially is “buying” the company to me but they get nothing out of it.

Edit: whoa i woke up to a lot of messages! Some context to my question is that I am not from the US myself but I see bailout stuff in the news and as I understand it, the idea of capitalism is understood that “if you succeed then you make money and if you fail you go bankrupt and fold or get bought out” hence me wondering why bailouts are essentially free money to a company to survive which in my head sounds like its not really fair because not all companies are offered that luxury.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I believe we do. For example, the auto bailout in 2008 resulted in the US Treasury earning a majority stake in GM

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