The accounting in this post is breathtakingly dishonest. I'd say I expect better of Krugman but I actually don't. Consider this argument: "I think taxes should

The accounting in this post is breathtakingly dishonest. I'd say I expect better of Krugman but I actually don't. Consider this argument: "I think taxes should be 10% higher, therefore, the taxpayer subsidizes 10% of all your purchases". It is structurally identical to "Employer healthcare comes out of untaxed income, therefore, the taxpayer subsidizes your healthcare to the amount of tax which would counterfactually get collected". Or this one: "State sales tax is not paid on food, therefore, the taxpayer subsidizes your groceries to the amount of sales tax which is not collected". This behavior greatly detracts from an otherwise fairly thoughtful point. I don't understand why people think it's ok to conduct themselves this way, Krugman definitely knows what he's doing here.