Economists agree that a Consumption based tax places less 'drag' on an economy. EVERYONE pays it too. Welfare parasites, the unemployed, retired people, kids, tourists, illegal aliens, people who work under the table. Anyone who consumes pays the tax.You are making a bad assumption that everyone pays it. There are schemes in the works to apply a sliding scale of sales tax that is keyed to your income. That's no better than the current communist income tax plan in place today.
That wouldn't work at all. It would just replace one mess with another.
It should be a flat tax.