Mining prevents double spends, that's all it does.
That is the level of security in the bitcoin network. It might be a design flaw to assume we can act like responsible adults, I agree. But if you're looking for something that makes end-runs completely impossible, I'm afraid you are asking to much and you won't find it in anything that exists.
I'm not commenting on the politics and economics of using public funds to guarantee deposits. I actually agree with the philosophy behind bitcoin, it's clear from the levels of public and private debt that west is gaining a reputation for poor fiscal discipline.
I just think the term is misleading, especially to people who don't know much about bitcoin.
Mining prevents double spends, that's all it does.
It doesn't prevent your bitcoins being stolen or make you whole afterwards, it's not analogous to a security guard standing outside a vault, or the government guaranteeing your deposits.
I'm mildly optimistic about about crypto currencies in the long term (10 years or more), but energy usage is the weak point of bitcoin, I wrote about this here http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/195k4o/the_case_for...