you can fail upwards, con people and still get out filthy rich.

Only if you con the poors. If you con someone who's rich or "powerful", then you get punished.

It's only bizarre until you realize this isn't a failure of the system. This is a success for the people getting the payout. They have lobbied and deeply infiltrated the government. The US government doesn't serve the citizenry anymore. It serves the rich and powerful. The rest of us are just useful as consumers to funnel money to the corporations.

Nah, most of Europe did exactly the same thing as America last time around. Hell the EU went out of its way to make sure bankers didn't lose money (how do you think Greek Debt which was entirely in private hands ended up in the hands of the EU, which then turned around and forced Austerity of Greece "to avoid losses of money of EU taxpayers") - the Corruption was just as bad on this side of the pond as it was on the other.

Iceland stands out because they were almost unique in the West in making the bankers pay for their shenanigans.