Mike’s Minute: We take the tax cuts as a rare win

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Welcome to tax cut day.

It's been a while since we've been able to say that. The tax cuts arrive to an uncertain debate as to what exactly they do.

Do they add to inflation? Do they change lives to the extent that they are material to most people? Did they get lost a bit in what has been a tsunami of change and upheaval since the new Government arrived?

Nicola Willis is very bullish about it all and tells Question Time most days that well over half a million people have gone to the tax calculator to work out what the numbers mean to them.

The bit for me that counts is the message.

If we have learned anything over the past few years, it is the simple truth that there is no amount of money a government can spend to quell demand.

You can take gargantuan amounts of cash, whether in real terms, or borrowed, or printed, and throw them all over the place and still you will find more hands with more needs.

It's a dangerous and slippery slope that we went down, and we sit here this morning still paying the price for it all.

What Governments should do is take as little as possible from you and me and whatever they do get they spend wisely and frugally.

We are not a bank and yet we have been treated as such.

The debate over the so-called "wealthy" not needing money is pointless. The debate around those in need still being in need is pointless.

That's because it's predicated on the idea that Governments can solve all problems and a finite amount of money does that, when neither are true.

What is true is workers need to keep as much of their income as possible and that is a rule that is too often forgotten and broken. The top tax rate in this country is 39%. Add 15% for GST and you are paying well in excess of half of every dollar you earn to the Government and that’s before you get to tax on tax and road user and ACC and all the other money grabs.

So tax cut day counts because it’s a small win for those of us who graft and pay this country's bills. The net contributors, as opposed to the net debtors.

Plus, the wins are few. So therefore, the wins are important.

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