For this reason alone, it should be instituted.
I am so fed up with our current tax system that I would gladly take the retail tax or even a flat income tax. With the retail tax, food and medical items should be exempted from all tax.
It might be ---but what about large families who must buy more things including food? They could easily end up paying much more tax than a childless couple with a very high income and huge bank accounts.
A M E N! ! !
It's all about F R E E D O M!!!!
I don't see why sales tax is preferable to income tax. It seems similar to a flat tax, since spending patterns don't vary as widely as income. I drive a $20K car, Bill Gates drives possibly a $80K car, but the difference in our incomes is a lot more than 4x.
To supporters of a flat tax: there are two ways to do it. (a) You charge tax so low that the homeless bum can afford to pay it, in which case Bill Gates is essentially freeloading, because the extent to which he benefits from public infrastructure, roads, law enforcement and national defense is a lot more than the extent to which the homeless bum benefits from it. Also, in this case, you probably won't raise enough money to build a single freeway or maintain a single Air Force fighter. (b) You charge tax so high that everyone below the poverty line starves, and Bill Gates is *still* freeloading.
No, I don't see a flat tax as realistic.
Additionally, a high retail tax discourages spending, which is bad for the economy.
The fact is, rapacious taxation, and FICA, funds socialist programs. It is without question that socialism destroys any system it touches, including constitutional republics organized under the rule of law.
To transfer that funding from one system to another is pointless, in terms of funding. And to transfer to a system, the abuse of which can only be protested by not having access to thngs like food and shelter, and the material items that are necessary for the body to live, is not very wise. 