If only we could afford to live the way we do, lamented Europe's entitled nobility as its privilege crumbled in the 1930s.

Eighty odd years later, the Turnbull government might feel the same way. Trapped between the world as it should be, and the world that is.

Its response is uncannily similar: spend more than it earns, and then wonder why it is unpopular.

And like previous governments, it is also engaging in the standard subterfuges, from proclaiming its low tax bona fides while increasing taxes, to invoking a higher national interest and seeking anything to distract from its own inadequacies.