The austerity of the drunkard
Since drinking more didn’t cure my alcoholism, I’m going to go back to drinking more.
Looks like Italy’s “austerity problem” is shared by France and other European countries:
In France, for example, the so-called austerity largely consisted of raising taxes. There was a 3 percent surtax on incomes above €500,000, an increase of one percentage point in the top marginal tax rate (from 40 to 41 percent), and an end to the automatic indexation of tax brackets for inheritance, wealth, and income taxes. There was also a 5 percent hike in the corporate income tax on businesses with revenue of more than €250 million, as well as a hike in the capital-gains tax, and closure of several corporate tax breaks. And even though most of these tax hikes were aimed at the wealthy, the middle class did not get off free. There was an increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol.
True, there were some entitlement reforms and spending reductions. But they haven’t actually occurred yet. For example, France will raise its retirement age from 60 to 62, but not until 2017! A cap would also be put on government health-care spending, starting next year.
If you’re an alcoholic and you redefine “abstinence” to mean “drink more”, then sure, you’ll be able to follow that abstinence plan easily. But it’s hypocritical to then claim that since abstinence doesn’t work, you’re going to go back to drinking.
Paul Krugman is a hypocritical drunkard. If you redefine austerity as raising taxes, then sure, you’ll find it isn’t going to work.
In response to Beware the Austerity of the Politician: Austerity, to politicians, doesn’t mean what you think it means.
- Europe’s Failed ‘Austerity’: Michael D. Tanner
- “Given Europe’s continued slow growth, Professor Krugman might have an argument to make—if there actually had been any austerity in Europe over the last two years.”
More austerity
- Pluto is not a planet, and other respectable murders
- If Pluto is not a planet, and tomatoes are not vegetables, then austerity can mean higher taxes and more spending.
- Austerity really means raising taxes
- When Paul Krugman claims that austerity is a failure, he defines it as cutting spending; but in fact, his examples are all of countries that raised taxes often along with raising spending.
- Austerity is not the only answer
- According to the Financial Times, Austerity is not the only answer to a debt problem. The other answer is a paywall.
- Beware the Austerity of the Politician
- Austerity, to politicians, doesn’t mean what you think it means.
More misleading terminology
- Pluto is not a planet, and other respectable murders
- If Pluto is not a planet, and tomatoes are not vegetables, then austerity can mean higher taxes and more spending.
- Economic misterminology: recessions that never end
- When we remove causes and effects from our descriptions of economic events, such as recessions, we lose our ability to change for the better.
- Austerity really means raising taxes
- When Paul Krugman claims that austerity is a failure, he defines it as cutting spending; but in fact, his examples are all of countries that raised taxes often along with raising spending.
- Austerity is not the only answer
- According to the Financial Times, Austerity is not the only answer to a debt problem. The other answer is a paywall.
- Vodka Economics
- Stephen Green’s light bulb: “corporations don’t pay taxes. Not one red cent. They never have and they never will, even if you jack up the corporate rate to infinity-percent-plus-one.”
- Three more pages with the topic misleading terminology, and other related pages
More Paul Krugman
- Austerity really means raising taxes
- When Paul Krugman claims that austerity is a failure, he defines it as cutting spending; but in fact, his examples are all of countries that raised taxes often along with raising spending.
- Paul Krugman & President Obama furiously fix economy
- Improving Mexico’s economy: “Fast and Furious” gun-running plan from New York Times economist Paul Krugman.
- The joyless jobless recovery
- Government spending is higher than it has ever been. So why aren’t people pleased with the economy?