Banks Helped, Individuals Not?

In otherwise revealing piece about how the Fed lent billions more to banks than previously reported, Gretchen Morgenstern commits this howler:

But that’s the way our world works. Billions are secretly showered on troubled financial institutions to stave off disaster. Individuals get little or no help.

As of last year at this time, "individuals" as a group got $319 billion in unemployment benefits over the previous two years. In 2011 alone, individuals as a group got $120 billion in payroll tax cuts.

None of this is to say that the Fed bailout was designed beautifully, but it did prevent the financial system of the United States from collapsing. Meanwhile, many many billions of dollars also went to individuals to help them in these troubled times too.