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I don't understand how the NRST forces everyone to pay. There are now elaborate strategies to get around the income tax, and there will be just as many (if not more) ways to get around the NRST. People will be creative, find a way, use bartering, cash, or whatever to circumvent paying the tax.

I think in the long run, the NRST is a better motivation for behavior with increased savings and longer useage of old products. For example, if the purchase price of a new car is 25% higher than the manufacturing cost, it will be worth it to keep fixing rather than getting a new one. Parts will also be higher but a substantial part of the cost is labor. However in the short run it will destroy the economy. Irregardless of the lower prices because of no income tax, any kind of taxation will affect behavior. People will spend less and save more. That will decrease consumption of new products enough to cripple the economy in the short term. The extremely wealthy can get around the major purchases by buying expensive personal items overseas and bringing them home with them.

Some also talked about the effect of switching on retirement savings. There definitely would be a penalty on those with Roth IRA's. I already paid substantial tax on it knowing that I wouldn't have to do so in the future. With the NRST, I would again have a major tax when I spend that income.

People will spend less and save more.

I can see why we would think that, but I can't see any evidence that people will ever do this.

Every time I hear about a sale on HiDef TV that puts it down in the range of $1500 or so I almost run off the road. $1500 for a TV? And that's on sale? If Americans will spend $1500 on TV then they will spend any amount on anything. They have money falling out of their a$$holes and can't figure out what to do with it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think consumerism in the US is a freight train you couldn't stop if you tried.

Shalom.

I don't understand how the NRST forces everyone to pay. There are now elaborate strategies to get around the income tax, and there will be just as many (if not more) ways to get around the NRST.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

You are saying that evading NRST means we should keep the present system, even though it is plain to see that NRST is harder to evade, especially for the people in the illegal/underground economy, who just plain ignore the system us law abiding serfs pay into.

I don't understand how the NRST forces everyone to pay. There are now elaborate strategies to get around the income tax, and there will be just as many (if not more) ways to get around the NRST. People will be creative, find a way, use bartering, cash, or whatever to circumvent paying the tax.

Short of robbing local wal-marts or pirating freight on I-70, how?