Financial Meltdown?

I have been receiving emails from friends and family about the proposed Wall-Street bailout. None of these are supportive, and most suggest, instead, that a similar amount of money be passed to working and middle-class Americans in hopes of a sort of "trickle-up" theory. Now, attractive as this sounds, it's not gonna happen! I, too, am not happy about this bailout--it's a huge amount of money, and this pickle within which we find ourselves was, for the most part, caused by the greed of those on Wall Street. But the situation today is scary, scary, scary! I'm afraid that if we don't do something, our entire financial system might collapse: no more social security, no more Medicare, huge losses in retirement funds and 401Ks. I wish I saw a bright side to this (one way or the other), but I don't. What do y'all think? Am i panicking unnecessarily, or do you share my concern? I'm looking forward to reading your responses.