The media, politicians, and armchair real estate professionals seem to have begun making a part time job of analyzing what should be done to solve the foreclosure crisis. The debates so far, however, have been somewhat limited to the possibility of the government stepping in and providing relief to homeowners, or doing nothing and allowing home prices to crash. Instead of expecting more from the government, it would make far more sense for the bureaucrats to scale back many of their activities in all aspects of the average person's life.

One simple proposal may just be getting rid of the personal income tax altogether. While no one would mourn the loss of the IRS, those who fear that all federal government services would dry up should realize that the government could be the size it was in 1997 if the income tax were eliminated. Also, even though many people never pay anything to the IRS and simply receive a refund every year, it would be much better for those people to have that money in their pockets all year to help pay for mortgages, transportation, or food. Giving an interest-free loan to the government all year when one is unable to pay back their own loans makes little sound financial sense.

Politicians should also stay out of the housing crisis altogether, as this is not a problem that we can legislate our way out of. The Orwellian named Foreclosure Prevention Act was a complete joke and illustrative of the impossibility of just creating more laws and acts to solve market problems, designed to take more tax money from homeowners in order to hand out tax breaks to home builders, banks, automobile companies, and the airline industry. Leave it up to the elected lawyers to redefine the phrase "foreclosure relief" to mean "foreclosure victims relieving corporations of their tax burdens."

As well, unless the Iraq War and our other overseas commitments are scaled back enormously, the perpetual borrowing and inflating needed to sustain the perpetual war industry will bankrupt the country. Spending over a trillion dollars every year on military bases, covert operations, no-bid weapons contracts for projects that are never completed, and subsidies for defense contractors creates an unsustainable drain on the productive capacity of society. There are many more goods and services that people want when they are at peace than when their efforts must be spent on repairing destruction.

A final idea would be for the federal government to begin to transition towards real, sound money, based on gold or silver or some basket of commodities. While it is unlikely that this will happen without a large-scale economic meltdown and reorganization, private citizens can invest in gold and silver coins on their own. Local governments, too, may wish to look into instituting their own local currencies, to put more direct control of the money supply back into the hands of people and communities. This would also strengthen towns and counties that have been hit hardest by lack of money or disappearing production and jobs.

Simply handing over one's tax dollars and then demanding a "solution" to the housing crisis from Congress is a sure way to an even deeper economic recession. As evidenced by the "Foreclosure Relief Act," it is clear that politicians spend more time thinking of how to trick the people into supporting more corporate welfare than actually addressing how to help homeowners stop foreclosure. Unfortunately, it may be that the country itself will face bankruptcy very shortly and the dollar will face a total collapse; therefore, the most effective solutions will be found with private citizens and in local communities, rather than the bureaucrats in Washington.

The latest, most up-to-date foreclosure information and resources can be found by visiting the ForeclosureFish website. Hundreds of pages of news and analysis, foreclosure legal information, and general advice is available to homeowners in danger of losing their homes. Visit today to download an e-book that describes how foreclosure works and the most effective methods to stop it: http://www.foreclosurefish.com/