The Market Meltdown

I am still in shock that in one week in 2008, the stock market fell more than 1000 points. I thought it would come back up in a few weeks, but it has stayed around the mid-8000 point level for months. I started to wonder in earlier December, that if people started to invest more in products, would the stocks go back up to a more secure level? What do you think the people and/or the government should do to bring the market back up?