Solve the Housing Crisis by Letting Banks Fail

We can solve the housing crisis if we allow the banks to fail. That’s right. Let’s not bail out banks like IndyMac. If the banks holding mortgages fail, everyone with mortgages get to keep their homes without paying! When one of your creditors goes belly up there is no one to pay! So voila, free homes! The housing crisis solved.

And the banks failing? Oh, well. Most of us middle class and poor folks have hardly any money in banks, anyway, so we have little to lose. Rich folks? Oh, too bad. Rich people have never seemed to care when we middle class and poor folks have no money, so why should we care when rich people lose theirs?

Besides, it’s time banks and big companies and rich folks started playing by the rules of capitalism and free markets and Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” all concepts they trumpet loud and often when it is to their advantage. No more reaping the benefits when times are good, and then bilking taxpayers a la “socialist” bailouts when times get tough. I’m sorry rich folks, but you’re finally going to have to stand on your own two feet. We middle class and poor people have been supporting you for far too long.

So, let the banks fail. We solve the housing crisis that way. People will get to keep their homes. Finally, a financial crisis that will help ordinary citizens. And new banks and institutions will pop up and fill the void, replacing the failed banks and institutions, just like we’ve been told it’s supposed to happen in a free market “survival of the fittest,” capitalist system.