I think you know you are backed into a corner and are looking for more smoke and mirrors to escape. Of course it is hypothetical but it is intended to be treated as real for the purposes of dicsussion.
23% is a lot of money- this is not like hunting for needles in haystacks or fine margins, this is a massive part of the cost that you claim can be removed.
The only place it could be "found" is the income and payroll taxes that are now being paid to the FedGov. These ARE embedded taxes and they could be removed from the cost of the goods, and this would drop the prices of the goods. But the Fair Tax doesn't give the business this tax relief, it gives it to the employee.
Not wanting to answer a valid question because I have proven that I ask questions you can't answer. You are good at giving answers to questions that weren't asked. Staying on a real track to actually get anywhere is impossible for you because you don't actually understand what you are saying, so you resort to saying you could answer the question, but won't because I'm not worth an answer.
Since you are so intellectally superior to me I'd think you'd want to prove me wrong, but you can't. And you wouldn't be my hero, you'd be the hero of the entire FairTax movement.
In fact, why don't you tell us where to get rid of the 23% right now, since it isn't related to the income tax paid to the employees, we should be able to eliminate the 23% tomorrow.
Hey, Rob - no one that I know ever said that embedded tax costs were ever composed - even partly of income/payroll taxes (even the ER portion which certainly belongs properly to the employee).
Intellectually superior to you? - I suppose you think that's flattering, but I'm just a plain, old country boy ... but I am willing to read, study and learn form many different economic analyses. That's a mark against you since you are not and think you are "right".
Believe me there is no "corner" that you have or even could have "backed me into" - that merely shows you own arrogance. Perhaps if you'd really paid attention to much of the material you'd been directed to, you'd have a better realization that there are places other than employee wages/taxes where costs can build up.
And as I said you can stop the pretense about wanting to "find out" something. It's clear that's not what you're after at all.