My question was borne of my initial skepticism that a consumption tax for consumers only could make up for lack of corporate tax. After looking over the fairtax.org site, I now see that it's possible.
Getting back to the actual flow, I take it that a manufacturing corporation would not pay tax on items it purchases to produce a product; otherwise, the cost of the ultimate product, before mark-up is considered, would be exponentially higher because of the successive generations of tax-paid being forwarded to the end-user. So by a corporation's not paying taxes on parts purchased, the cost of the end product (before profit is added) is theoretically cheaper.
Do I have this right?
That's it in a nutshell.