It seems the national Budget ceremony has rolled around again, and the media get themselves into a spin about how much is going to be spent on one thing and not on another. Which particular lobby group gets what and how much and for how long.

As always, it is the politicians from the opposition parties that stand up and decry the allocation of public monies and argue vociferously that the priorities are all wrong. There are loud proclamations about which parts of society will be disadvantaged, and which will be spoilt. 

I seem to recall when I was growing up, adults would cluster around a radio on the kitchen table to hear the budget announcement from Parliament, and the associated “surprises” around what was going to be taxed more and where money was going to be spent. These days it is a lotless of a surprise because many of the details are drip fed out to the media before the big unveiling, so most of it is well known by even the most disinterested members of the public.

The main gist of the whole thing is that it really seems like a shuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic with the distribution of the increasingly smaller pot of baubles trying to hold back the harsh economic realities over which we have very little control.

Our economy runs on oil (which is pretty much like everyone’s economy) and if the price of oil goes up because a bunch of people are firing rockets over the ships carrying it here, then our economy has to pay more for it. 

The people who control our coffers are always thinking of new and exciting ways to extract the money out of the wallets of anyone who has it, and squirrel it away for spending on a large range of “things” we need to function as a society and a country. The real arguments really ensure over what “things” should be at the front of the queue and what should be shunted to the back.

I have enough trouble trying to balance my budget at home with the constant avalanche of bills for everything from the food you eat, to the clothes on your back and the roof over your head. Now we have the added load of increasing local Council costs for things such as rates, rubbish, infrastructure and now water. 

Im starting to understand why some people go bush and forsake this modern existence where every breath you take comes at a cost. 

I was chatting with a couple of fellow golfers at the golf club yesterday and they were all showing their despair with the cumulative costs now for insurance, rates, now water and every other thing associated with owning a home. When you think that owning a home and joining in the fun pastime of losing the shirt off your back to pay for anything associated with having the home, I am starting to understand why many younger Kiwis do not see the option of home ownership as not only unreachable, but now also becoming unsustainable if you manage to get a home. Is this really what we want?

If the older homeowners are talking about selling up and heading off, then what are the young 30 year olds with two young children and a rapidly unaffordable living condition thinking? You need people here, working and paying tax to provide the income that they dispense in the budget. If you throttle that source, then everything else collapses. Haven’t they figured that out yet?