Most people today are clueless in what is being withheld from their paychecks.
They let H&R Block do their tax returns and whistle while the Feds stick it up their wazoo, because they're too stupid to figure it out.
On the other hand, with something like a consumption tax; when Joe Six Pack buys his six-pack of Budweiser for $7.00 and has to pay 90 cents in taxes, he will SEE how he is being fleeced by the gov't.
Too few people do not pay attention to most of their bills. Ever stay in a hotel, fly on a commercial airline? The published rate is one thing. What you PAY is usually about 20% higher. Look at your telephone bill. It's loaded with more hidden charges than Clinton hummer interns in the White House.
Further, a lot of the black market / underground economy will go away as it is sucked up into the retail market; and thus pour more money into Uncles' ever-thirsty-sucking coffers, since it will be collected and sent to DC.
Wake Up America. Too many of us have been dumbed down, or lulled into the "Stepford Wives'" mentality for too long.
Funny you should use the term 'underground economy'. Has a familiar ring to 'underground railroad'. Perhaps both are attempts to escape forms of involuntary servitude.
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AMENDMENT XIII Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865. Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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Seems the only parties who might be eligible to pay and income tax might be those that have been 'duly convicted'. At last check, I haven't.