Even if they knew what they were talking about, budget night would still be a lot of strutting and posturing about materialism and money, and not about wellbeing.

But they don’t. If the government spends more than it takes back in taxes, the private sector runs a net surplus, and that stimulates the economy. Government ‘surplus’ risks triggering a recession, and often has.

If the government taxed back all its money, the economy would stop.

If the ‘debt’ never has to be paid back, it is not a debt. It is better called an investment in the private sector.

Almost the entire Australian political class has government spending exactly backwards. It is NOT like a household – it creates money before it spends it. Taxes regulate economic activity, they don’t pay for anything.

Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth is widely available. The Millenial’s Money by J. D. Alt is a brief and easy explanation.

It’s past time these ignoramuses educated themselves. While they’re at it, they might learn about the other dozen or twenty false ideas by which we are governed: A New Australia