For nearly 18 years, my wife and I have made our monthly mortgage payments on time and in full. Never late. Never anything less than the total amount on the bill.

So I'd like to know: Where's our reward? I mean if people who haven't been meeting their obligations are getting $75 billion gift-wrapped by the federal government, shouldn't those of us who have met our obligations get something, too? Has this become a society where only bad behavior is rewarded?

Silly question, I know. This is, after all, the country's whose government is spending $700 billion to prop up financial institutions that couldn't manage their books and tens of billions more to rescue automakers whose bad business decisions have pushed them to the brink of bankruptcy.

I guess the only thing my wife and I can expect for our good financial management is the ability to sleep at night without worrying about losing the building in which that sleep occurs.