[Hermann the Cherusker]

The fair tax will never fly because it is a massive tax cut on high wage earners, speculators, and investors, which, to be revenue neutral, means it must be a massive tax increase on wage earners.

If you forego taxing interest, dividends, and capital gains, the money must be made up for somewhere, and the only somewhere is the full consumption of wages by low-end and middle workers, since high end wage earners rarely consume anything close to all of what they earn.

[Ditto]

If you forego taxing interest, dividends, and capital gains, the money must be made up for somewhere, and the only somewhere is the full consumption of wages by low-end and middle workers, since high end wage earners rarely consume anything close to all of what they earn.

From a macro-economics stand point, I must disagree with you. Unless the "high end wage earners" are stuffing dollars under their mattress, they like the low-end earners, are consuming every penny they get. All money is spent one way or another. It can be spent at retail, or it can be invested (i.e. passed to some third party) and then spent. One way or another, it is all spent.

[Tenacious 1]

"The fair tax will never fly because it is a massive tax cut on high wage earners, speculators, and investors, which, to be revenue neutral, means it must be a massive tax increase on wage earners."

This is mindless drivel. You need to research Fair Tax before you make these statements. This sounds like the kind of thing that any one of Dean, Kennedy, Billary, Shumer, Durbin, etc. would rattle off.

Play smart. Or at least fake it.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

You discount the broadening of the tax base. The Fair Tax will not only capture the underground economy, tax cheats, and others when they spend their money but it also takes an equal amount from the average family. A family of four with one wage earner has one income taxed. (Two wage earners don't make any difference for this example.) However, that one wage earner buys for four, so his family now has effectively four tax payers.

High wage earners usually also buy more even if it is just for themselves. The rich certainly do. For one who has an interest in fairly viewing this that is not hard to see.

[goldstategop]

The point is there no TANSTAAFL under ANY tax system. The Fair Tax simply brings all the formerly hidden taxes out in public sight. You know exactly how much your tax bill's gonna be. It doesn't take an army of accountants to figure it out for you. Perhaps that's why accountants and lawyers loathe the Fair Tax. They'd have to look for more honest work.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)