can someone explain to me why we can't just let the investment firms fail

I'm no economics expert, but when I hear "bail-out" all i'm understanding is that this problem is getting shoved under the rug for the next few years until the next generation can inherit it.

I see that we're faced with two sides. Defer this problem into the future by dulluting the purchasing power of the dollar, which will make it much worse in the long run in my opinion, or nip it in the bud right now, let all the risk-takers get what was coming to them, and let our economy, which was obviously to top-heavy with loans, do a hard reset over a shorter period of time that effectively/hopefully brings the value of the dollar up back over time

The only benefit I can see if we print out money is the current generation of people won't have to suffer the consequences of their actions. The next generation and the following and a long line of generations will, but not us. It sickens me.

yeah, to do it the hard way and let the banks fail would flood the US with unemployment. but that would drop the prices of everything. no more 300k homes that are next to the freeway. no more 50k salaries driving around brand new caddy's with rimz (yeah i put a Z on rims, bitch). Hell, even traffic will go down since taking the bus just got a whole lot more attractive to the wallet. US is also a huge consumer, so countries that export to us will also need to brace themselves since we won't be paying thousands of dollars for their 60" widescreen LCD TVs anymore.

All that I'm saying is that I don't understand why no one is saying "WHOA. Stop this shit right here, right now. We have to deal with this head on. It's our problem, we got to own up to it." It's like all the people that run the show have decided to play a game called "pass the blame" and these are supposed to be the smartest financial minds in the world. You know who's laughing at us? People that live in Yurts. FUCKING YURTS. I don't want no damned yurt-dweller to be laughing at me.

After I read through what I just typed above, I started to look around the web to see who had the same opinion as me. It turns out that long with a bunch of economists, Ron Paul's blog sounds extremely similar to ranting. I don't know what scares me more, that people may think I'm a Ron Paul'er, or that he actually may have been the better choice for our country...

Oh, almost forgot to mention. Small banks, as in under 20 branches total, are doing fine. Why? I would think it's because they recognize risk when they see it, and didn't put all their eggs in one basket. I'm going to have to find out if my bank is one of those.