[Always Right]

The tax base for both systems is the entire legal economy. A $1000 purchase under the sales tax will yeild a similar amount of tax as a $1000 purchase under the income tax.

This is not relevant.

It is the only thing that is relevant. It is the whole point that you miss and fail to acknowledge that it is a complete wash.

[Principled]

No, you are the ONLY one who is saying this. Did you notice?

Whether it's a wash is not relevant. What IS important is that of the total collected, the drug dealer now pays his share. Currently, he doesn't. Currently, his only pays a portion of his taxes.

You are missing the point. It is not that the total collected stays the same or not. It is that under the income tax, drug dealer doesn't pay all his taxes, we have to pay some of his taxes for him. But under the nrst, the drug dealer pays ALL his taxes, so we no longer have to pay any of his taxes... becuase he pays ALL HIS TAXES under the nrst.

Under the income tax, the drug dealer only pays a portion of his taxes.
Under the nrst, the drug dealer pays all his taxes - so we will no longer need to have a higher rate on the rest of us in order to make up for the drug dealer's taxes that aren't paid under the income tax.

As usual, your focus is so tight on th eincome tax, that you miss the point and look dumb.