Like all the great nations and societies of history the United States is rapidly coming to the end of its existence as a great and powerful country. The shackles of our nearly 70,000 page tax code are making us less and less able to compete in the global economy. Our tax on capital is cutting our businesses off at the knees. Our highest earners have half their income confiscated by the IRS. All of these taxes along with the cost of complying with nearly unfathomable tax regulations put us at a severe disadvantage as competitors in the global economy since these expenses must be added to the price of the goods and services we sell.
If we could beat our competitors by a very large margin but are only beating by a smaller margin because of these things then we are less competitive. As the taxes and regulations, plus frivolous lawsuits and onerous labor union rules, get more severe, and they are likely to, we will then be even less competitive.
Our strong and growing stronger competitors are China, India and the Indonesians where labor is so cheap as to offset many other problems they may have. I have no ideas what their taxes are but I have read many complaints that the workers are nearly as coddled and "protected" by the government, adding to costs, as ours are.
Take you strawman elsewhere.
Certainly US labor would be more competitive if our cost of living was lower, will the FairTax fix that?