Are you suggesting that the "average Joe" is going to keep ALL his receipts and ADD UP all the little bits of FairTax he pays throughout the year, then subtract the monthly prebate amounts from that total, and divide the result by his total income (from all sources) to determine his FairTax burden? Get real! "Average Joe is far LESS likely to do that than decipher his own W-2 or 1040 forms.
You appear to live in Pennsylvania (I was born and raised in Western PA). Pennsylvania has state and local sales taxes. The tax rate and tax amounts are annotated on every recipt. Do you have any idea how much sales tax you paid last year? It's all 100% in plain sight ... it's just not very easy to figure it out.
For comparison, go look at your 1040 form last year. Can you tell how much Federal Income Tax you paid last year? Go look at your W-2 form. Can you tell how much Social Insurance tax you paid last year? Multiply that number by two if you're interested in how much was contributed to your benefit ... or just look at your annual Social Security statement.
Consider the total of your FIT and SI taxes(both halves) to be 80% of all Federal tax you paid directly and indirectly. Divide the total FIT + SI by .8 and you have a very good estimate for your total Federal Tax Burden.
The problem with a sales tax is that there is no summary accounting. You'll never know how much you paid unless you are willing and able to track every transaction ... and if you miss a year, or a month, or a week,... you'll never be able to recover the data. For all it's warts, at least the current system gives me enough information to figure out what my actual tax burden is.
As for withholding, I would agree that the best way to put the average Joe in touch with his tax burden is to make him write a check periodically. Burying his tax burden onto a receipt that he'll more than likely throw away will not accomplish your desire.