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The Theresa Heinz Kerrys of the world, who now derive large portions of their income from tax free investment vehicles and thus pay very little in income taxes WOULD pay their share under the Fairtax.

Oh so it's a "soak the evil rich people" plan?

But since the tax costs are already embedded in the things they buy, the evil rich are already paying the taxes in the form of "hidden" costs, aren't they?

Its not a 'soak the rich' plan at all. It (sounds to me at least) that is about as regressive as it gets. The higher up the totem pole in the way you are living, the more you pay. Keep in mind that has little to do with wealth creation and savings. People like you and me would be on equal footing, because we can all save tax free too.

As for paying taxes as 'hidden costs' I would say like hell they are...as hidden taxes. With all the corporate loop holes and all that, we are paying those hidden taxes but who knows where they end up. Its not like "hey! this hidden tax goes straight to the government..." Its more like "these hidden taxes are built into the program but have to make it past a stringer of accountants first"

The problem here is how we define wealthy.

The super rich, like 50 million bucks or even 10 million or above in investable wealth... they use the system to their advantage.

The other 'half' of the "wealthy" make their money and earn 200K on up to in corporate jobs or whatever.

So even to the wealthy as far as paying taxes to the federal government, they get screwed among their own ranks.

Half of the "wealthy" get stuck with 50% of the bill. The only problem is the half is the lower half. So if you are busting your rear and get a $300K plus options job... you get screwed. If you are born into a family of billionaires not so much.

From my meager understanding of it all I will do an analogy regarding 'hidden taxes'...

From the governments standpoint its like them (the government) fishing on a frozen lake.

If they just cast out there odds of them catching a fish are just about zero. Why? Because their bait is sitting on top of the ice.

Only when they go in and drill a hole can they fish in that particular spot.

So they do sometimes drill holes in the ice...

The problem is there are just as many if not more loopholes in the corporate tax system as well...

But what ends up happening is the government has to go downstream of the dam where they are releasing water...and ONLY fish in the spot where the water is rushing through the dam.

If the fish doesn't flow through the dam on its way downstream then you cant catch him.

In other words hidden taxes are there and we pay them, but as for being a viable stream of income to the government itself, not so. So this begs the question 'where does the money go'....its wasted or finagled in many instances. Its like we are all living one big ENRON accounting scandal.

If the sales tax idea comes into play it in effect will melt the ice on the lake and you can catch more fish with less burden on just one fishing hole.

The fair tax is openly described by it's sponsors as a tax on accumulated wealth which is EXACTLY what it is. The differience is that, unlike the current system, it is honest and straight forward in it's application (tax it once but ONLY once). It puts all of us on equal footing in our quest to accumulate wealth by taxing EVERYONE who enjoys the benefits of being in this great country be they here only for a little while or an entire lifetime and does so regardless of how they obtain the funds in their pockets. Further, it frees U.S. manufactured goods from ALL the burdens imposed by the current tax system. Lastly, it does NOT make and enforce apriory claims (claims prior to YOUR claims) on the fruits of your labor (a form of slavery IMHO). The only time you pay a tax with the FairTax is when YOU chose to purchase a new good or service and the government doesn't even need to know so much as your name for that to occur.