Sorry I have to comment
“I own my house debt free – I have no babies..”
Your moral superiority is rather naive. You stereotype every person who might be struggling yet you fail to bear the cost of reproducing and parenting a child to look after you in your old age. You ,of course, will expect the rest of society to provide for you when you are older.

The point is not that is it virtuous to have children (and it’s great we live in a society where people without children do not have to be anxious about their future) but having children is not an optional extra as you would like to suppose. If every adult in the world ceased to have any children, then society would collapse and old age would be very grim.

I’m simply asking that you need to be mindful that while you might be doing okay, try not to judge others who are struggling but that are in fact raising the next generation that will support you (or the economy that support you) in your old age.

,

Many other countries have a tax free living allowance that amounts to around 22/ 25,000 NZD in their local currency. That’s basically enough to keep body and soul together housed, clothed n fed decently. On top of that most countries certainly EU has no GST on food, and zero or lower rated tax on children’s clothing, council rates, vehicle licencing and a whole massive raft of other things. In many ways NZ has one of the most punitive tax systems and it’s easy to see how many people decide a life on the dole is not so bad …
Sorry Jonty … thumbs down from me !

NZ & almost every other country doesn’t have a fair tax system. You just don’t know what how it works