There is no such thing as government money – only people’s money.
Margaret Thatcher said it decades ago, but Sri Lanka would do well to hear it again – slowly.
Every rupee the State spends begins in someone’s pocket: a taxpayer, a business, a consumer. When governments speak of “allocations,” “relief,” or “spending packages,” they often present themselves as providers. They are not. They are managers – sometimes efficient, often not – of money taken from the public.
Be that as it may, the real danger begins when this simple truth is forgotten. Waste becomes easier. Loss-making enterprises are defended. Subsidies are handed out not as strategy, but as politics. And when the money runs out, the answer is always the same: more taxes, more borrowing, more burden.
But here is the hard question: what is the government doing to grow the pie, rather than simply divide it?
Revenue must come from productivity – from businesses that expand, exports that grow, investments that stay, and workers who earn more. Not from squeezing the same base again and again until it breaks.
Sri Lanka’s crisis did not begin with a lack of money. It began with a lack of discipline in how that money was used.
If there is a mandate now, it is this: treat public funds with the same care as personal income. Spend where it matters. Cut where it doesn’t. And above all, recognise that every rupee wasted is not abstract – it is taken from the people.
Because in the end, there is no government money. There is only yours.
