This is of course big big news–a plan that may help millions of people affected by this economic meltdown.

Some critics claim that the government has no business getting involved in the private market. Others complain that it’s nothing short of a colossal waste of money. Others complain that it rewards bad behavior by bailing out those who tried to live beyond their means.

As always, the truth probably lies somewhere in between. Sure there are people who took a gamble and lost but there are also plenty of other who were outright lied to and swindled and set up with a mortgage that was bound to ruin them financially.

It’s a sad fact that most consumers are not very financially literate and so these con men selling no interest loans, adjustable rate mortgages with huge rate increases a year or two down the road, and low teaser payments for a few years with huge balloon payments due were able to convince people to take on loans that they could not afford. The flip-side of course is that some consumers lied to themselves about what they could afford or otherwise allowed themselves to believe the myth.

What we can all agree on though is that we’re in one heck of a mess. Greed and excess were partly to blame. Lack of regulation of the markets, derivitives, the mortgage industry and the recent trend of deregulation and changing the rules of what banks, savings and loans, investment banks can do is, no doubt, a much larger part of the problem. Corporations have but one goal–increase profits and shareholder return. Unfortunatly, having that as the only goal of existance tends to leave a lot of wreckage and and damage in its wake.

So for all the flaws in this mortgage bailout plan, we at least can hope that it signals a shift in the focus of our government from bowing to the gods of profit-at-any-cost to a more rounded policy that focuses on improving the daily lives of everyday American citizens. That’s a priority that is way overdue.