How do you figure that?....the fair tax will be one separate, visible line on the receipt...NOT rolled into the costs. A flat tax does not get rid of the IRS and income tax code....this country started with a flat tax and look where we are today. That 60K page tax code sure isn't flat.
People can see the sales tax on their receipts already... But the government is still able to get away with raising it--- that's how Robert Taft (the new one) managed to stay in office. The problem with keeping the tax flat is far smaller from where I stand than permanently eliminating the other taxes, the fair tax calls to be eliminated. Besides, any sales tax rise increases the underground economy. The economic incentives inherent in the Flat Tax, on the other hand, are for all intents and purposes completely positive.
I can't accept the argument that the Flat tax will mutate back into the complex mess it is today. First, this doesn't seem to have happened in Hong Kong or in the East European countries like Poland. Second, it would be easy for voters to notice and understand. Third, that argument if accepted would obviate all flattening measures--- Ronald Reagan would have been told by his base "Simplification! Hah! Your cuts don't even constitute a real flat tax, much less the fair tax we really want! Forget it!"
But that response would have been an absolute disaster for America and the world.