Mike's Minute: Welcome to the week of the tax cut

Welcome to the week of the tax cut. The thing for me is it's more about the symbolism than the money. I have no idea if I get anything at all and whatever we do get isn't going to pay for three weeks on the Amalfi Coast in July. But that's not the point. The point is that somewhere along the way the mindset of keeping as much of your money as possible was stolen and replaced with the idea that there is always a cause, idea, disaster or group that can use it more than you. Working for your money and keeping it is actually a calculation that leads to growth and success. It's an incentive. It's not fashionable of course to talk about money, or making money, or keeping your money. It's not even that cool to admit that you like money and mainly that’s the reason you get out of bed in the morning. Even people who give away their money enjoy the freedom of having earned it in the first place and having the choice as to what to do with it. Tax is not choice, it is theft. In a small selection of cases it is broadly acceptable because we recognise the role of the state and we recognise the need for collective services. Where it's all gone horribly wrong is it's turned into an industry and the outworking of that industry has been shown these past few months in the almost continuous gnashing of teeth from those that argue there is no money for tax cuts and they have a list as long as any arm you want to produce of people more deserving than you. What the last six years has proven, and this is why the rules of engagement have to be changed, is that there is literally no end to handouts. No matter what you spend, and just look at the numbers because we have spent astonishing amounts of money on literally everything, we have buried ourselves in debt and passed the curse of it onto the next generation. We've been bailing people out, giving free money, cheap loans, backing dumb ideas, oversubscribing to folly and itches and indulgences. Look where it has us - in a gargantuan fiscal mess and still whining for more. Regular ordinary everyday New Zealanders get it, because we're the ones who earned it. The beneficiaries, literally and figuratively, are the ones who make the headlines because they know the trick is up and the scam is busted. The money tap come Budget Day is, if not being turned off, at least tightened a bit. At last.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.