The Fair Tax proposal original began in 1994 as a flat tax. Over $20 million was spent in researching better tax systems. Smart business people do not spend $20M on bad ideas.
The group eventually realized any national income tax would continue to have problems, which is why they took their flat income tax with a single large deduction (similar to Jack Kemp's proposal from the 1980s), and rebuilt it to a national retail sales tax with a "prebate" to cover the sales tax on essentials.
The problem with The Fair Tax is most people are sheep who have lost track of how much the Federal Government keeps of their paycheck each week, and actually looks forward to the Federal Government paying back the interest free loan people give the government each year.
Does it have weaknesses? Sure, any tax reform does. But any income tax requires filing tax returns, requires a full-function IRS, and will invite lobbying and meddling in Washington.
>> Smart business people do not spend $20M on bad ideas.
Leaving aside the fact that throughout history “smart business people” HAVE REPEATEDLY spent far LARGER sums on terrible ideas... you are putting forth an “appeal to authority” logical fallacy as the underpinning of your entire case. You haven’t even bothered to establish who these supposed “authorities” are so we can evaluate whether or not we want to look into *their* arguments.
>> The problem with The Fair Tax is most people are sheep
There are multiple serious known problems with the Fair Tax, among which are that it penalizes those on fixed incomes and that as a practical matter it will be nearly impossible to keep it from turning into a European-style VAT implemented ALONGSIDE an income tax. But saying that the main problem with it is that we’re all sheep who like a federal income tax refund is beyond ludicrous... it’s downright disrespectful to your audience.
Can you help me understand why so many fair tax advocates are such condescending demagogues? Do y’all fail to argue the idea on its merits and resort to silly attacks because the merits collapse upon closer examination? Or what?