Tuesday 22 September 2009

My Solution To The Debt Problem

Lots of talk recently about how the Government is going to set about clawing back the £1.3 trillion we owe.
I'm no economist but to my mind there are only three ways to go about it. You can either get more money, spend less out or mix it up and do a bit of both.
The problem with the first option is that it means a rise on taxes which nobody likes and will leave the Government open to allegations of openly penalising everyone for the misdeeds of a few. Not a vote winner.
Option two is less obvious and the choice of Government because of it but means cutting public services and how to decide which services to cut?
Whatever one gets its budget slashed, it is going to have an negative effect again on the public who will show their displeasure at the ballot box.
The third choice is the worst of both worlds where people see their taxes go up while their services go down. Guaranteed to see a collective kicking on election day.
So once again it is up to me to come up with a solution and this is my idea.
Scrap things like the ID cards idea, the national database and renewing Trident. These three alone would shave tens of billions off the debt and that's before i get to the clever bit.
Rather than large swinging cuts in certain departments that will disable certain parts while others are left untouched, lop 1% off every departments budget for the next fiscal year, leaving nothing ring-fenced.
It would be easier to adjust to a small, 1% deficit in expected income in each department rather than some juggling a large, 10% one. It would mean less job cuts and the continuation of services with only the slightest reduction in quantity or quality.
The combination of the savings from large scale, non-vital projects, the 1% cut and the repayment of the billions owed to the Government from the banks, would not wipe out the debt in one fell swoop but would massively reduce it to a manageable level without major disruption or people taking to the streets in protest at the reduction of their pay packets.
Whatever they decide, and it looks as though they will go down the deep cuts and the raising of tax route, we are going to be stung so lets make it as painless as possible by taking a little from everywhere. Makes sense to me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

lucy,

you can cut defense spending... oh, urrr, sorry, you already have... we provide for UK defense for anything beyond an invasion by the vikings...

q

Cheezy said...

Thanks q, that's a real load off :)

Cheezy said...

The Daily Mash hits the nail on the head, as usual:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/war/bankrupt-britain-forced-to-give-up-weapons-it-never-needed-200909232084/

Anonymous said...

cheezy,

it is funny and sad. i don't why we (USA) spend so much on military when there isn't a significant threat to the existence of any european nation, american nation, or pacific rim nation.

ikes military industry accounts for most of it i suppose...

q

Chris said...

Wikipedia states the Military budget of the United States for the 2009 fiscal year was $515.4 billion. There's your reason q, it makes some people very rich.