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.