What warrants a bailout??

I wonder why the dot com industry didn't warrant a bailout?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21qanda.html

There were millions of dollars at stake and many people lost much in the terms of retirement investments and yet the government did not see fit to spend billions of dollars trying to save the consumer from bad investments.

http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html