What should the government do about the economy?

What is the public’s level of understanding about economics? Following the Chancellor’s comments and predictions about the state of the British economy, a BBC discussion forum invited members of the public for their suggestions. There are over 100 pages to be viewed, but it is only necessary to scan through a few in order to get the flavours. They are worth looking at since they provide a snapshot view of people’s ideas. It is a measure of the task confronting anyone wishing to sell the idea of land value taxation in Britain, and probably anywhere else too.The main themes, are in no particular order, are…

“It is all to do with lack of confidence – the press just needs to ‘talk up’ the market”
“Get rid of paper money and use gold and silver instead”
“Make politicians’ pay performance-related”
“Call a general election”
“Just let house prices fall”
“Bring back council housing”
“Cut or abolish taxes: VAT, fuel tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, income tax, stamp duty, national insurance”
“Abolish HIPS”
“Encourage people to buy British”
“Increase R&D support for universities and industry”
“Slash public services”
“Discourage the throwaway culture and encourage thrift”
“Stop giving money to the European Union until they produce proper accounts”
“It is all because of the culture of the individual and lack of concern about society”
“Denounce the parasitic rich and poor”
“Do nothing, things will sort themselves out”
“Stop immigration”
“Force the banks to cut interest rates”
“Cut public sector pensions”
“Reopen the coal mines”
“Grow more food in the UK”
“Too late, the boom was engineered on loose credit”
“Cut Social Security payments”
“The government should make funds available for mortgages”
“Cancel the Olympics”
“Get out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”
“Give the job of Chancellor to someone who has a qualification in finance or has run a large company”
“Put taxes up”
“Secure a reliable energy supply”
“Cut interest rates”
“Make the Bank of England MPC genuinely independent”
“Take back control of interest rates from the Bank of England”
“Control the risks thebanks are allowed to take”
“Cut government waste”
“Get rid of the consultancy firms, overblown management teams and stamp out the benefit cheats”
“Get yourself a log-burner”
“Let economists run the country instead of politicians”
“Tax the crooks and wide boys out there”
“Include house prices in the inflation index”
“Don ‘t prop up the housing market with public money”
“Ask the Queen, she is head of state”
“Listen to the electorate”
“Blame the city bankers who live in tax havens”
“Nationalise everything”
“Cut the bureaucracy”
“Stop buying cheap foreign goods”
“Tackle the economists with their broken theories”
“Boost the property market by concessions so that people can invest their pensions in SIPS”
“It’s a global problem”
Read the original comments on the BBC web site